Desert Rose
by Shad0w W0lf
Summary: A massive sandstorm blows in an unusual young girl whom is rescued by Gaara of Suna. With a twisted ankle she is confined to the village until it heals, giving Gaara time to get to know her. What he finds out will turn his world on it's head...OC FINISHED
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One

Kohana ran as fast as she could, her feet sinking into the soft sand with every step and the wind whipping her hair all over the place. Her breathing was ragged and a stitch was stabbing into her side but she forced herself on, cursing at herself with every spare breath for being such an idiot. A quick glance behind her gave an added burst of energy as she saw just how close the sandstorm was. To be fair, she did have warning and she had seen a safe place to hole up for the duration of the sandstorm. But she thought she could make it to Sunakagure before it reached her. But she was wrong.

She just _had_ to try to outrun the sandstorm; she chided herself in a sarcastic little inner voice.

Suddenly her foot caught on something and a stab of pain lanced through her ankle as she went down hard. As she fell she twisted so that she landed on her side instead of her stomach, protecting the bundle tucked securely inside her jacket from getting squished. For a few moments she couldn't think beyond the blinding pain coursing from her ankle, but after a few moments the pain faded long enough for her to gather her wits.

Gingerly she moved her injured foot to assess the damage and almost passed out from the pain. With a groan she flopped onto her back. Great, not only was a massive sand storm bearing down on her, she couldn't even make it to adequate shelter which was only a few minutes away.

"I fucking hate the desert." She murmured, it was not the first time she had voice this particular sentiment.

A soft caw sounded from her jacket followed by a long sharp black beak and a black head with beady black eyes peered at her. With a grimace she managed to get up into a sitting position.

"Stupid bloody desert, sand getting in _everywhere_, always so bloody hot..." she took out her frustrations by muttering under her breath. The crow looked up and gave another 'caw' a little louder then the first and a little more urgent.

"Shut up, I have to concentrate." she said as she closed her eyes, but she immediately felt a twinge of guilt at the way she snapped at the crow, her feathered friend didn't like the desert any more then she did.

She took a breath in, then out. Please work, she begged silently in her mind. She could already feel the first of the sand stinging against her face. She reached within herself to draw up the last of her strength.

But she was tired, thirsty, out of breath with a stitch burning in her side. And on top of that she had an injured ankle. She had no spare energy and the act of trying to draw on depleted reserves made her dizzy and faint.

No, she thought, I can't pass out yet. But before she knew what was happening she had slumped to the side, blackness edging in around her vision as she jarred her ankle, sending a fresh wave of pain over her already abused foot. She was aware of frantic squawks and stinging sand when suddenly a face loomed up into her vision. But her vision was too blurred to make out any details, but she could hear the person talking.

"... You're safe now."

At that moment she could hold on no longer and finally succumbed to the darkness.

***

Slowly she opened her eyes, her head feeling fuzzy. For a moment she struggled to comprehend why she was in a large airy room and not in her dark little attic room before she remembered what had happened. The haze cleared completely from her head as she remembered that she had been caught in a sandstorm. She had fallen and hurt her ankle, her ankle! She sat up in the bed to look at her ankle only to find it neatly wrapped up in plaster. She gave an internal groan; she didn't break anything, did she? She leaned over and poked at the hard plaster a few times.

"You really shouldn't do that."

Kohana almost fell out of her bed in surprise and she turned to find a young girl holding a tray of food. The girl smiled at her.

"You must be hungry; you've been out like a light for the past day and two nights." She settled the tray on her lap and continued to chatter as Kohana practically drooled at the sight of the food and drink, she was starving.

"My name is Dai and don't worry about your ankle, you didn't break anything, it's just a nasty sprain."

"That's a relief." Kohana said around a mouthful of food.

"But you're going to have to stay off it for at least a week or more so that it can heal properly." Dai continued.

"What!" Kohana spluttered, "I can't stay here for a week! I've got to get home." she flopped back onto her pillows, her food momentarily forgotten. "I'm supposed to resupply in Sunakagure then continue on straight away. Arrrgg, it's all because of that stupid sandstorm."

Dai planted her fists on her hips, "You should be more grateful then that! You could have been flayed alive out in that sandstorm! If it wasn't for the Kazekage you probably wouldn't be able to go home at all."

"Kazekage?" Kohana asked as she sat back up and continued with her eating, "Who's that?"

Dai rolled her eyes, "He's the leader of this village. He's also the one who rescued you."

"Oh." Kohana pushed her tray away, her meal finished, "Then I'll leave him a thank you note before I leave. Speaking of which, where are my things?"

She pointed over at the opposite corner of the room then folded her arms, "You're not planning on going anywhere, I hope?"

"What else do you think I'm doing?" Kohana said as she gingerly slid her feet off the bed, "By the way, where's the overgrown wren that was with me?"

Dai blinked a few times in confusion, "You mean that large crow?" she asked.

"Yes."

"Um, it flew away as soon as you within the walls, no one's been able to get it since."

"Good, can you bring over that small bag please?"

The younger girl picked up the tray from the bed and stuck her nose in the air, "No."

"Why not?" Kohana asked a slightly stunned look on her face.

"Because the Kazekage himself asked me to look after you, and at the moment, looking after you means making sure that you stay in bed." With that, Dai stuck the tray on the bedside table then planted her hands on Kohana's shoulders and shoved her gently back onto the bed. Kohana tried to struggle back up but found that she couldn't. She gave a curse when she realized that she didn't even have enough strength to put up any resistance.

It was while she was cursing and still struggling under Dai's hands that the door opened and someone entered the room.

"Are you having trouble Dai?" A male voice asked softly.

At the sound of the voice Kohana stopped her cursing and struggling and simply stared, open-mouthed at the new arrival into the room. His dark blood red hair, his pale green-blue eyes lined in black and his smooth pale complexion all combined to make up this gorgeous individual. His tall lean body just stood there, observing the scene before him.

"No Kazekage, I'm doing great." Dai replied with a smile.

Kohana was still just staring at him, "Damn you're hot!" she blurted out suddenly. The Kazekage's eyes widened slightly in surprise, but as soon as the words left her mouth though, she flushed a bright red and clamped a hand over her mouth. It was a real problem that she had, a tendency to blurt out whatever thought she had on her mind without stopping to examine the words first. Normally she could stop herself before damaging her intelligence but sometimes, like just now, she just made an idiot of herself.

Still blushing hotly Kohana just buried her face beneath her pillow and silently whished that she could sink into the ground itself. Dai just stood there giggling at her embarrassment. What Kohana couldn't see, with her face buried under the pillow, was that Dai was giggling at the Kazekage as much as she was giggling at her. The Kazekage had gone a shade of pink, embarrassed and somewhat unsure how to respond to such a comment. He scratched the back of his head.

"Um, thank you?" he mumbled, confused.

Kohana pulled her pillow off her face and shoved it back under her head; she had made a fool of herself far too many times now to let it affect her for long. The Kazekage, however, didn't have her experience and she was soon giggling like mad along with Dai when she saw that the Kazekage was still red in the face. After a minute or two of hysterical giggling the girls managed to calm down. Still grinning widely Dai picked up the empty tray and walked out of the room leaving them alone in the room. Now that she had calmed down and Dai was no longer holding her hostage Kohana resumed her efforts to get off the bed and moving. All traces of pink fled from the Kazekages' face and he took three swift steps over to the bed and gently pushed her back down onto the mattress. Kohana gave a sound of protest followed by a curse.

"What is this!" she demanded, "Why won't you let me up?!"

"Because you are injured. You should be staying in bed to rest and heal." He replied calmly. "Besides you don't even have the strength to make it to the door, let alone traveling."

Kohana just gave another vile curse. The most infuriating thing was that he was right, evident in the fact that he was keeping her pinned with one hand placed just on her collar bones. Her eyes drooped, she was also feeling extremely tired, her struggle against Dai sapped the last of the meagre energy that she had when she woke.

Her eyes drooped once, twice...

"Sleep, it will do you good." the Kazekages' deep soothing voice lulled her straight to the edge of sleep.

Her eyes drooped once more and she slipped into the darkness.

***

When she awoke again, the room was dark and her stomach grumbled loudly. She pushed herself up into a sitting position and looked over at the table next to her bed. Sitting there was a tray with a covered plate and an empty cup. Next to the tray a pitcher of water sat. Eagerly Kohana grabbed the tray, almost falling out of the bed in the process, and settled it into her lap. Removing the cover she found that the food was cold, but she didn't care, it was food, and she wolfed it all down. When she had finished she patted her stomach contently and poured herself some water, of which she took a huge gulp from. With her hunger satisfied she suddenly had another, more pressing need. Biting her bottom lip she pulled the covers off and slid her feet off the bed. Bracing herself she slowly stood up, keeping all her weight off the injured foot. She thanked her lucky stars that she didn't have to go far. Using the bed for support she went as far as it would allow her. Gathering herself she hopped from the end of the bed to the toilet door, grasping the wooden frame for support as soon as she got there.

Twenty minutes later she had managed to make it back to her bed without incident, but the short trip however had left her feeling tired again and a little dizzy so she gladly snuggled down in the bed to get some more sleep. But just as she was closing her eyes the sound of rustling wing beats sounded in her room. Kohana just kept her eyes shut; maybe if she pretended then the crow would just leave her alone. But unfortunately she had no such luck. She felt the crow jump from the end of her bed onto her foot before fluttering down to the floor. She heard the clicking of the claws on the floor as he made his way across the floor and up to the head of her bed. After about a minute of silence she felt a finger poke her in the shoulder.

"I know you're awake." The voice was harsh yet oddly melodious.

Kohana cracked her eyes open to find herself looking into a pair of jet black eyes set into a face that was a dark olive with very pointed features, topped off with a mop of straight blue-black hair. She poked her tongue out him.

"Go 'way, I'm trying to sleep." she said.

He just merely smile and rested his chin atop of arms that he had crossed on her mattress.

"I just wanna know how your foot is. It's hard to eavesdrop and avoid being captured at the same time, especially with this mob. They are very fast and well trained for a group of humans."

Kohana rolled her eyes, "Didn't you listen to Sensei at all. Remember she told us that these lands had elite warriors trained from childhood to use chakra for fighting."

He pulled a face, "I know, I know, I just didn't expect this level of training, that's all. But back to the original question, how are you doing?"

This time it was Kohana's turn to pull a face, "I am told that I sprained my ankle, the cast was just to stop me from making it worse with any abrupt movements. But they want to keep me here for at least a week, but we are leaving in the morning."

"Oh no we aren't. We will wait the week."

Kohana sat up abruptly, "But we can't! Sensei is expecting us home in two days."

He just gave a shrug, "its fine, she'll understand. Besides you don't only have a sprained ankle, you were also dehydrated and depleted of chakra. I think a week should be long enough for you to recover enough to travel."

"No!" she hissed quietly, "We leave tomorrow."

A mischievous gleam twinkled in his black eyes, "Well then I hope you're a good swimmer 'cause I won't take you. Not until the week is up anyway." he said.

Kohana gasped then grabbed the pillow and whacked him over the head with it. He just laughed and in a flurry of blue-black chakra became a crow and flew out the window. Kohana just gave a huff of annoyance as she settled back into try and get some sleep, muttering darkly about a certain stupid overgrown wren.

***

Kohana abruptly woke and sat up with a start. It was late in the morning and she was alone, not even a tray of food waiting for her. Her stomach grumbled hungrily as she looked around. Great, she thought, I'm hungry and there's no way for me to actually get anywhere. She adjusted her pillow behind her so that she could sit up properly and leaned back. She figured she might as well see what the damage to her foot actually was. Somehow she felt that 'nasty sprain' wasn't a real answer. She closed her eyes and turned her focus inwards. She was pleased at how fast her chakra had regenerated, the crow had been hanging around her more often then she thought, although the rest and good food helped a lot as well. Still with her eyes closed she leaned forward and put her hands on either side of wrapped and bound foot, the presence of the hands drawing the chakra from her abdomen down her leg and to her foot where she used it examine the damage she had done with her little trip to the sandy ground.

As the chakra pulsed invisibly around her foot sending her information about her injury she ground her teeth in frustration. It was worse then she first thought she found at least two tendons in the top of her foot snapped, massive bruising on the tissues and, even worse, hair line cracks on the bone. No wonder her foot ached. With a resigned sigh she drew some of the chakra into her hands and focused on her foot again. Sending the energy in deep she worked on the bruises first. That should help ease some of the ache. Next she focused on reattaching her tendons and strengthening them. After that she smoothed over any other rips and tears that she could find.

The whole process took almost an hour. She withdrew her chakra and sat back against her pillow again, a sheen of sweat across her brow. She had made a good start; over the next few days all she had to do was strengthen the healing tissue so that her foot could retain full and effective function once fully healed. Her stomach gave a loud grumble and she remembered that she hadn't eaten since whatever time last night. Wistfully she looked over at the door leading out, now that she knew the true extent of her injuries she didn't really want to be walking around on her foot the way it was at the moment. But it would appear that someone up in the heavens loved her because at that moment the door opened and Dai walked in carrying a tray of food for her. Kohana clapped her hands in delight as the food was bought over and placed in her lap.

"I figured you would want something more substantial then stew or mashed vegetables today." Dai said as she lifted the cover away.

"Fank yoo." Kohana said around a slice of cold meat that she had already stuffed into her mouth.

Dai just shook her head and sat down in the chair that rested in the corner to patiently wait for her to finish her meal. Ten minutes later Kohana had polished off every last scrap of food on her plate and patted her stomach contently. Dai got up and collected the tray and plate cover and set them on the bedside table.

"The doctor should be here soon to check on your foot." Dai said as she dragged the chair over to the side of the bed so that she could sit next to Kohana.

Kohana just nodded. Even though she knew exactly the condition of her foot and ankle she kept her mouth shut. One thing her Sensei had stressed to both her and the crow was to not let the northerners know that she could manipulate chakra. The other thing she was warned about was not to reveal the true nature of Kuro, the crow. She was told that these people wouldn't understand the nature of the relationship that she shared with her feathered friend. So for now, she kept her mouth shut.

"So...," Dai's voice bought Kohana out of her internal musings, "I was wondering.... what exactly where you doing out in the desert in a sandstorm for? Surely you would have been warned?"

Kohana gave a laugh, "Yeah, I was told that but I thought I would have enough time to make to Sunakagure before it actually hit." she scratched the back of her neck and gave a small shrug, "Obviously I was wrong."

"Obviously." Dai said dryly, "Where are you headed?"

"Home."

"Where do you live?"

"A little village tucked into the woods far to the south."

As Dai opened her mouth to fire another question at the strange girl the door suddenly opened again and the doctor walked in followed by a nurse wheeling a tray piled with bandages and some sort of cutters. Behind the nurse, however, was the Kazekage.

The doctor immediately went to the end of the bed where he drew his chakra and started to examine the foot. The Kazekage stood just behind Dai and looked down at the patient. Gaara hadn't forgotten the bold little statement that she had made when she saw him for the first time; it hovered in the back of his mind like an annoying little fly. The girl turned her attention away from the doctor to peer intently at him. As Kohana studied him she noticed something that she had missed yesterday. The Kazekage had a character drawn on his forehead, just above his left eye. She tilted her head slightly, that was strange.

"How on earth do you stay so pale in this environment." she asked him suddenly.

Caught a little off guard, this girl seemed to have an unerring ability to do that, he just shrugged. She just gave an 'hmm' and continued to study him, so he took the chance to study her in return. Her long blue-black hair rippled, unbound, down past her shoulders to spread out over the pillow and bed sheets. He guessed the length of it to reach to at least her buttocks. Her skin was a light honey coloured and she had dark blue eyes set into a round face that sported a short, straight nose and lips that were fuller on the bottom, giving her a wicked pout.

"Well, this is looking good. You are certainly a fast healer." The doctor said as he straightened up.

The girl looked at the doctor with a grin, "I sure am." she said.

"Well now that your awake we can take off this cast and just wrap a bandage around it to hold it." He said as he reached for the cutters, "Don't worry about these, they won't hurt you... uh, what would your name be?"

"Oh, it's Yabun, Yabun Kohana."

With a nod the doctor started to cut off the plaster. Kohana turned back to the Kazekage.

"I never got your name," she said to him, "I don't want to spend my entire incarceration here calling you 'Kazekage'"

"Incarceration!" Dai said indignantly, "Your not a prisoner, we just want to make sure your fully recovered!"

"It's Gaara." the Kazekage said quietly, "Subaku no Gaara."

"Gaara." Kohana breathed the name out, "I like it."

Suddenly flapping was heard and the crow appeared on the window sill. Everyone in the room just stared for a moment before the doctor gave a frown.

"Can someone get rid of that filthy creature, this is a hospital."

Quick as a flash Dai was up and over next to the window sill with her hands reaching for the crow. But the crow was quicker, jumping off the sill and onto the ground below Dai's reach, before launching itself back into the air with a couple of wing beats to rest on the head of the bed.

"Wait," Kohana said, raising her hand to stop Dai's second attempt at capture, "the crow is with me."

"That's right, you asked about the crow that was with you when we bought you in." Dai said with a slight frown, "I've never seen a pet so tame, he must be hand raised."

A look of intense disgust crossed Kohanas face, "He is not a _pet_." She spat out the last word, "He is my partner."

Gaara gave a slight frown at her choice of words. He looked over at the crow only to find the crow looking straight back at him with a disturbingly high amount of intelligence in its beady black eyes. Suddenly the crow ruffled out his feathers with a shake before hopping down onto Kohanas shoulder. Kohana reached up her hand to give Kuro a quick scratch on the breast.

"OW!" Kohana gave a small yelp as the doctor moved her foot to slide the cast away.

"I apologise for that," the doctor said, "would you like a pain killer?"

With her face screwed up in pain Kohana could only nod and wonder why it wasn't offered _before_ he moved her foot. The doctor gave a nod to the nurse who jabbed a needle into her leg. After a few moments the numbness spread across her foot and halfway up her calf and she relaxed back into the pillow, forcing the crow to perch back up on the headboard.

"Again I apologise." the doctor said as he wrapped the bandage around her foot, "I'm more used to treating the shinobi who refuse the pain killer because it causes lethargy, which slows down ones reflexes and concentration. A state that leaves any ninja nervous."

"Ninja? Those are the people who are trained from childhood to fight, aren't they?" Kohana asked.

Dai gave a nod, "I'm a ninja." she jerked a thumb at Gaara, "But the Kazekage is the strongest ninja in the village."

Kohana raised her eyebrows, "The strongest? I hope that is not sole criteria for being a leader of a village full of living weapons?" There was a faint tone of disbelief in her voice. Like she couldn't believe people could that stupid.

"Obviously not." Gaara said, "Basic leadership and diplomatic skills are usually a must."

Kohana just gave a quiet 'hn' and turned back to watch the doctor as he finished up the bandaging of her foot. He secured the loose end then straightened up. A look came on his face that Kohana recognised all too well. It was the 'stern-but-deeply-concerned-doctor-about-to-give-a-lecture' face.

"Now young lady, you are to stay in bed for the next couple of days, you are not to go walking anywhere on that foot of yours. I will send up a pair of crutches so that you can make it to the bathroom, but that is the only place you will go. Got it?" He gave her a heavy stare.

Kohana held up her right hand, "I promise I won't do anything to further harm my foot." She gave a sickly sweet smile at him. The doctor gave a slow frown but after a few moments he gave a curt nod to the nurse who grabbed the trolley and wheeled it out of the door followed by the doctor. Dai just gave a gleeful grin of her own before skipping around the bed and grabbing the empty food tray. She then almost practically skipped out the door, closing it shut behind her leaving Kohana alone with the Kazekage. Again. It seemed to be a recurring theme Kohana noted.

"Is she always like that?" Kohana asked pointing at the door.

Gaara just gave a slight shrug of his shoulders before crossing his arms.

"You're not planning on staying in that bed, are you?"

"What ever could have given you that idea?" Kohana said innocently. A noise that sounded suspiciously like a snort came from the crow.

"Your choice of words."

"Hmm, that obvious was it?"

Gaara nodded, "I'm not the Kazekage for nothing."

"Did you hear that!" Kahona said poking Kuro in the breast, "I do believe our friend here has a sense humour." Kuro just shook out his feathers.

"Promise me you will stay in bed." Gaara said evenly.

Kohana opened her mouth to say that she would make no promise that she couldn't keep when something stopped her. She closed her mouth and stared intently at Gaara, there was something in his eyes, well hidden, but still there. As she stared at him, Gaara felt trapped by her gaze. Unable to look away he just stared right back into her dark eyes. Finally she blinked and broke the eye contact.

"I promise I won't leave this bed unnecessarily until the doctor allows me." She said calmly.

"Thank you." Gaara said quietly.

There was a thump and an indignant squawk as Kuro fell off the head board in surprise and disbelief.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

Kuro sat, in his human form, crossed legged on the side of Kohana's bed wearing nothing but a pair of loose black pants. He had a grin on his face that just filled Kohana with the overwhelming urge to push the crow boy off her bed, just to watch him sprawl ungracefully on the floor. He was grinning at her like that because he knew a really juicy piece of gossip and was currently withholding it from her. She hated it when he was like that. She stuck her bottom lip out in a pout as she glared at him. Granted, yesterday, she had laughed her ass off at him when he had fallen off the headboard of her bed. But now he was getting her back.

"Can't you just tell me?" she wheedled.

He leaned back slightly using his long lean wiry arms to prop himself up, "I could but it's going to cost ya." he replied with a smug grin.

She narrowed her eyes at him, pretty much aware of what the price would be and instantly deciding that it wasn't worth it.

"Forget it." She said as she crossed her arms and looked out the window.

He shifted forward, putting his arms on either side of her and bringing his face just inches from her own.

"Trust me. This is a titbit that you would really, really want to know." he said quietly, his eyes shining with mischief.

She slowly turned her head to look at him, unfazed by his close proximity. She opened her mouth to reply but before a word could get out Kuro quickly closed the gap to claim her lips with his own in a short, intense kiss. She was rendered momentarily witless with surprise. But before she could gather a reaction together he pulled away and out of reach of her swinging palm. She shot him a glare, it wasn't the first time that he had stolen a kiss from her but for some reason, every _single bloody_ time, it took her by surprise. The only consolation that she had was that he wasn't always fast enough to dodge the slap that invariably followed. He grinned at her, his dark eyes dancing with merriment.

"For your sake, that better have been worth it, 'cause as soon as I can lay a hand on you I'm slapping you into next week." She ground out between clenched teeth.

His smirk widened further and he opened his mouth to speak but then his entire face fell blank and his eyes unfocused for a moment.

"Someone's coming." he murmured before shifting to his crow from in a swirl of blue-black chakra.

Hastily Kohana grabbed the now empty pants and shoved them under her pillow out of sight, just in time because the door opened and a man stepped in. Kohana looked at him, this was someone new. He was dressed casually in dark grey pants and a black top, a mop of spiky dark brown hair topped his head but his most striking feature was the fact that his face was covered in deep magenta paint. She just blinked at him a few times, the only person she had ever seen wear more make up then this guy was her older sister. He gave her a grin.

"Gaara couldn't make it in today so he asked me to drop by for him," he gave a low whistle, "now that I've seen you though, I can't say that I blame him for sneaking off each day to come see you. You're cute."

Kohana just turned a bright shade of red, waving her hand she spluttered out a few sounds trying to deny his claim. No one ever called her cute before, except for her parents but they didn't count. He heard Kuro giving his crow equivalent of a chuckle and this time she gave into her urge and pushed him off the bed with a frown, her face still red. Much to her disappointment he didn't fall to the floor, he just fluttered to perch on the end of her bed, still laughing at her. She looked back up at the stranger who was just grinning at her.

"You look even cuter when you blush." He decided to add.

She didn't think it possible but her blush deepened and she fiddled with the edge of her blanket, not being able to look into his face, and muttering something about how the heat of the desert must be affecting his head. He decided to take pity on her though and grabbed the chair. Settling it next to the bed backwards he sat down in it resting his arms on the back.

"Your Kohana right? My name is Kankuro." he said holding out his hand.

"Pleased to meet you." Kohana replied grasping his hand, her blush finally fading. "The crow's name is Kuro."

"Cool, is he your pet?"

She shot him a dirty look, "No, that's just degrading, he's my partner."

"Partner?" Kankuro's eyebrows shot up, "interesting. So are you a ninja?"

"No." Kohana replied, "I'm a healer."

"Oh, so what does Kuro do then?"

Oh he's fishing, Kohana thought. "He's a pain in the ass." she said shooting said crow a glare, he still needed to tell her that titbit of news. Kankuro gave an absent nod and rested his chin on his folded arms.

"Actually, could you do me a favour." she asked sweetly.

"For you, sweetheart, anything." Kankuro replied with a grin.

"Could you bring my small bag over to me, I promised Gaara that I wouldn't get out of bed unnecessarily."

"Sure." He got up and walked over to the corner where her things were stored and grabbed the small bag that sat on top. He walked back over to the bed and placed it into her lap.

"Thank you." she said.

He shoved his hands into the pockets of his pants, "No problem. I've gotta go but I'll defiantly be back. See ya." with a wave he left.

Kohana just waved at him absently before rifling through her bag. She finally pulled out a wooden box. Placing her bag on the floor next to the bed she rested the box on her lap and opened it. Inside was a pile of paper, two small blank scrolls and a couple of pens. A swirl of chakra at the end of her bed told her that Kuro had changed back to a human form. She pulled the pants out from behind her pillow and tossed them at him.

"Right. Since you have so much free time on your hands at the moment you are going to deliver a message for me." Kohana said as she started to scribble out a letter on one of the blank scrolls.

Kuro finished putting on his pants and sat himself on the mattress, "I dunno about that, idle time is always great. You can find out useful information."

With a frown Kohana stopped her writing and looked up at him, "That's right, you own me some information. Spit it out and if it's good then I might restrain from knocking your head from your shoulders."

He reached out to tuck a lock of her hair behind her ear, "You shouldn't frown so much," he said with a grin, "you'll end up with wrinkles at a young age."

Kohana just gave a long suffering sigh, "Just tell me."

He leaned in close his voice lowered to a conspiratorial whisper, "The Kazekage, that Gaara guy, he used to be a Jinchuriki."

Her eyes widened, "Are you sure." she asked in a hushed voice.

He nodded, "It's faint, but the echoes of demonic chakra are still etched into his body."

She stared at the letter before her, thinking hard.

"We have to let Sensei know about this." She looked back at him, "If he once had a demon sealed within his body, then we have to know how it was removed and where it went." she started to write furiously again.

Kuro slid off the bed and went around to rummage through her bag while she wrote. After some searching he pulled out a hairbrush and a hair tie. Gently he held her shoulders and directed her to turn. She paused in her writing long enough to shift around on her bed so that he could reach her hair. Grabbing her brush he started to brush out her hair. Kohana was writing as quick as possible, fitting in everything that had happened on her trip and ending with her injury and the piece of information about the Kazekage. She signed her name and put the pen back in the box. Then she quickly rolled the scroll back up. She turned her head to find Kuro tying up the end of the plait that he had done with her hair.

"Thank you." She said, "Can you fetch the message case."

Kuro walked over to her bigger bag, which still sat in the corner, and started to rummage.

"I don't see why I have to be the messenger birdie." he said as his fingers closed around the cylindrical case and he pulled it out.

As he handed her the case she grabbed his cheek, "But you make such a useful little messenger birdie."

Kuro just pulled a face and crossed his arms as Kohana slid the small scroll into the case. She patted the side of her bed with a grin.

"Come on overgrown wren, time to earn your keep."

He poked his tongue out at her but climbed onto the bed. The familiar swirl of chakra surrounded him and a large black crow now stood on the bed. He spread his wings allowing Kohana to attach the case to his back more easily. The tips of her fingers glowed with chakra as she drew them over the straps connecting the case.

"Ok, once you change to your true form the straps will simply expand to accommodate your larger size." she held out her hand and the crow climbed on. She gave him a scratch around the neck before murmuring, "Safe journey friend." With a toss towards the window Kuro took off out the window and quickly disappeared into the blue sky. Kohana leaned back onto the pillows and closed her eyes. She hoped that her Sensei would reply quickly.

***

Gaara sat in his office catching up on the paper work that he had been putting off the past few days when there was a knock on the door. Without waiting for an answer the door opened and Kankuro walked in. Gaara barely spared him a glance but his whole being was attentive to his older brother. Sitting himself down in the chair Kankuro gave a grin.

"She's fine."

"What did the doctor say?" Gaara asked, finally putting down his pen and looking up.

"That she is healing extraordinarily well. He's actually little puzzled at the speed of the healing, said that something is helping it along. But he's not too concern, suspects one of the medical ninja interns is using her to practice on."

Gaara just rested his chin in his hands. The silence stretched out for a bit before he spoke.

"Thank you for seeing her for me."

"No problem," Kankuro replied standing up, "the pleasure was all mine actually, she is quite cute."

A faint shade of pink touched the Kazekages face at his brother's words. He ducked his head to try and hide it before Kankuro could notice, but it was too late. Kankuro's eyebrows shot up to almost his hairline.

"Ooooh, you think so too, don't you." he said with a wide grin leaning over the desk and peering intently at his brother.

Gaara just mumbled something under his breath, his blush darkening.

"What was that?"

"I never said anything of the sort." Gaara said a little louder.

Kankuro narrowed his eyes, "But she did?"

Gaara looked up, startled, how on earth does he do that? Kankuro straightened up and pointed at Gaara triumphantly.

"Ah ha! She did say something! What exactly did she say?"

"I'm not telling you." Gaara said mutinously.

"Fine," Kankuro said spinning around, "I'll go ask her." With that he took off out the door.

"Kankuro! NO!" Gaara shouted running after him.

Kohana was just stuffing the last of Kuro's pants into her small bag when she heard a scuffle going on out in the hallway behind her closed door. Curious, she dropped the bag on the floor and turned towards the door. What the hell was going on out there? She heard a shout and suddenly the door flew open and Kankuro took a step in. She just stared at him wide eyed, what was he doing back so soon? He looked like he had been running.

"What did...!" he never finished his sentence because he was suddenly spear tackled from behind. His assailant turned out to be Gaara, who had grabbed one of his arms, had him pinned to the ground and was now trying to gag him. Kohana bit her bottom lip to stop from laughing, but a snort escaped her anyway. This was hilarious, reminded her of her two older brothers when they wrestled.

At the sound of a snort Gaara's head shot up and he realised that they were in Kohanas' room. He looked up at Kohana as she chewed her bottom lip the corners of her mouth turned up in a smile as she tried not to laugh, her midnight blue eyes twinkling with mirth. Underneath him Kankuro had twisted his head and was able to see his brothers face. He grinned; his brother was absolutely smitten with the girl and didn't have a clue. With a heave he pushed Garra off his back, sending him sprawling to the ground. He stood up brushing off his pants.

"Very dignified, Kazekage." Kohana said, amusement lacing every word. Gaara came to himself with a start then quickly got to his feet. Latching onto the back of Kankuro's shirt he then proceeded to drag his brother out of the hospital room without saying a word. Kankuro just gave a grin and a wave to Kohana as he allowed himself to be dragged out. Kohana just waved back. That was strange, she thought, but amusing.

She leaned down to pick up her bag, she was sure she had bought a book with her; she would need something to pass the time until Kuro returned.

***

With a thump Kohana banged the back of her head on the headboard of her bed. It had only been a day and a half since she sent Kuro off with the message but she was sooooo bored, it was driving her crazy. She thumped her head again. If her calculations were right Kuro should have almost reached home by now, and if he didn't dawdle he should be back in about two or three days. She rolled her head to the side to look out the window. That would be two or three days too long. Tucking her arms behind her head she sighed, at least she was able to get dressed into her own clothes, but she was still confined to the bed. The monotony of her days broken only by visits by Kankuro. For some reason she hadn't seen the Kazekage since that day he speared tackled his brother. She had been mildly surprised to find out that the boys were brothers. But although Kankuro was good company, she kind of missed seeing Gaara, even if he didn't say much or didn't stay long, he was still damn good eye candy. Kohana gave a rueful smile, yes her sole reason to want to see Gaara was to perv on him. Shaking her head at herself Kohana rolled her eyes, she was spending too much time with Kuro, his favourite hobby _was_ to perv.

The door opened and she gave a start, surprised out of her musing by the doctor. Without a word he came over put his hands on either side of her foot, his hands glowing green with chakra. Kohana looked at him expectantly, she had been strengthening the healing tissue in her foot every day and she knew that it was healing nicely. But she needed the doctor to say that, she needed him to give her the ok to be able to get out of the damn bed and _do_ something.

"Well," the doctor finally said as he straightened up, "It looks good. You can do some light exercise, but you still have to use the crutches."

She gave a whoop of joy, "SWEET! I can go home now!"

The doctor raised an eyebrow, "I didn't say you could do that. No hard travelling yet for you missy." he said as the door opened and Kankuro walked in.

"But..."

"No. I recommend that you check into one of the inns and come see me in a few days for another follow up."

Kohana buried her face in her hands, "I _can't_, I have don't have enough money left. I didn't budget for this bloody injury." she fell back against the headboard.

"Well your welcome to stay here in the hospital if need be."

"No, I wanna get out of here." She whined.

"Why don't you come stay with me?" Kankuro chirped up suddenly.

Kohana looked at him; she had forgotten that he had entered.

"I... I couldn't. I don't want to intrude upon you." Kohana stammered.

He waved his hand, "Nonsense, I live with Gaara in a nice big house that now has a spare room since our sister moved out. It'll be no problem."

"But..."

"Gaara won't mind either."

Kohana's resolve melted away like butter under a hot sun, "Are you sure?"

Kankuro nodded firmly and gave a grin, "Yep. Besides it is for purely selfish reasons, this way I get to see more of you."

Kohana just flushed bright red. Kankuro pretended not to notice, instead he pointed to her large bag.

"I'll carry that for you, we'll leave now so we can get you settled."

Kohana just nodded, this was going to get interesting.

***

It had been a long and tedious day and Gaara was glad to be home. He opened the door and let himself in, finally he could relax. As he walked into the lounge room he stopped dead. Sitting on the couch were Kankuro and Kohana chatting away happily. Kankuro looked up and gave a lazy wave.

"Welcome home. I hope you don't mind, but I've invited Kohana to stay with us until her ankle is fully healed." he said with a wide grin.

Kohana gave a nervous little smile and a small wave. Gaara just walked through the lounge room, hooking his brother and dragging him into the kitchen.

"You did what?!" Gaara said quietly, once they were safely ensconced in the kitchen.

Kankuro just slapped his hand on Gaara's back, "Relax, she has nowhere else to go," he leaned in and gave a wink, "and you can't tell me that the thought of seeing her more doesn't appeal to you?"

Gaara just massaged the bridge of his nose, "Kankuro, you will leave her alone. She won't become one of your conquests."

His brother gave a sharp laugh, "Not for me. I was thinking more for you."

"What!?" Gaara just looked open-mouthed at his brother. Kankuro just laughed.

A small cough alerted them to the kitchen doorway where Kohana stood leaning on one of her crutches.

"If it's too much of a hassle, I don't mind staying at the hospital." she mumbled.

Kankuro just gave Gaara a pointed look.

"No, stay here, its fine. We have the room." Gaara replied, his shoulders slumping in defeat.

"Thank you." Kohana said giving a wide smile that lit up her face. Gaara's heart skipped a beat at the sight of her smile and he gave a small smile of his own.

"Kankuro, you can organise dinner. I'm going to get changed." Gaara said walking out of the kitchen and towards his room.

Kankuro threw his hands in the air, "Take away it is!" he draped an arm around Kohana's shoulders, "welcome to our house."

Kohana just laughed as she was escorted back out into the lounge room.

Later that night Kohana sat on her bed, her hand glowing softly with chakra as she sent strength and healing to her foot and ankle. By the time Kuro came back she should be ready to leave. When she finished she leaned back to fall on the pillow. She still found it a little hard to believe that she was actually in the Kazekage's house, the room she was staying in was no more then fifteen feet from his. With a sigh she sat up and grabbed the crutches, despite the late hour she was having trouble sleeping. The edgy, anxious feeling that she had somehow lost something very important was gnawing at the edges of her mind, preventing her from easy resting. It was always like this whenever Kuro was away from her for any period of time. She remembered seeing a bookcase in the lounge room; she headed in that direction hoping to find something on the shelves that might be able to put her sleep.

But as she approached the room she noticed that a light was on. Curious she entered to find Gaara sitting in the single armchair with a lamp on and a stack of paper in his lap. He was holding one of the sheets in his hand, reading. Sitting on the coffee table in front of him was a smaller pile of paper, the sheets that he had already read. But at her entrance he looked up, surprise evident in his eyes.

"What are you still doing up?" He asked, shifting the unread pile of paper from his lap to the coffee table.

Kohana leaned on her crutches, "I could ask you the same." she replied with a small smile.

He regarded her for a moment before answering, "I was doing some work."

"I'm just having some trouble sleeping." Kohana said as she sat down on the couch, "I noticed that you had a bookshelf earlier and thought I might find something to read."

Gaara turned his head to look at the said shelf located behind his chair.

"I'm not sure if there is anything that would interest you, most of the books belong to Kankuro."

"And how would you know what would interest me, hmmm? You been reading my diary?" Kohana said with a smug smile.

"N... no! I wouldn't." Gaara sputtered out. Kohana just started to laugh quietly.

"You are so easy to tease."

Gaara just slumped back into the chair resting his elbow on the armrest and allowing his face to fall into his hand. Why, oh why was it so easy for this girl to put him so off balance? Kohana allowed her laughter to die away as she studied the Kazekage. Even by the light of the lamp she could see the tension that ran through his torso. Without thinking she spoke.

"Come here for a moment."

Gaara lifted his head, "Huh?"

"Tch, I said to come here for a sec." she said a little impatiently.

Without a word he rose from the armchair and sat on the couch next to her. Putting her hands on her shoulders she shifted him so that his back was facing her.

"What are...?" he started to ask.

"Shhh. Trust me." she said quietly.

Gaara sat there, not sure what she was going to do, wanting very much to know what she was going to do and also wanting to just go back to his armchair. But for some reason he squelched all the uneasiness down and just stayed put. There was something about her voice that made him want to trust her.

Once his back was turned to her, Kohana closed her eyes and drew a very small amount of chakra to her hands, knowing that she was running a risk of discovery yet unable to help herself. She opened her eyes and rested her hands on his shoulders, using her thumbs to gently massage at the muscles at the bottom of the neck before moving further down the spine and across the shoulders. Gaara let his eyes slide half shut as her skilful hands eased away the day's tension. Oh, this was good; he thought a smile drawing the corners of his mouth up slightly and a breathy sigh escaping from between his lips. Kohana just gave a smile of her own as she felt the Kazekage relax bit by bit beneath her hands. She liked to both give and receive massages; she found it soothing and meditative. Not to mention that there was also a healing element to a good and skilful massage that was why her Sensei had taught her. She believed that a good healer shouldn't be closed off from any possible healing avenue.

Pretty soon the Kazekage was nothing but putty beneath her fingers, all the tensions eased away. Kohana finished up giving Gaara a light tap on the shoulder to bring him out of the light trance. With a slow blink Gaara turned around to face her.

"Your done." she said quietly.

"Thank you." he said, just as quietly.

She tilted her head slightly and gave a smile, "Anytime." She gathered up her crutches, "I'm feeling sleepy so I'm going to head back to bed."

Gaara sunk into the couch, "Good night." he said

"Good night Gaara."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

The next morning Kohana was delighted by a tour of the city by Kankuro. They walked a nice, slow easy route so that she could manage with her crutches. This took up the entire morning so that when lunch rolled around, Kankuro took her into a noodle shop to shout her some food. As she settled into the chair, leaning her crutches against the table, she looked around in wonder.

"This is great!" she exclaimed.

"I'm glad you think so." Kankuro said as he turned to her after ordering their lunch, "Are you enjoying yourself?"

"Yep. Today has been great." Kohana said with a wide a grin.

When their food came Kohana breathed it in deep and immediately started to eat. All conversation was paused while they consumed their meal in silence. When they had finished Kankuro paid and they left. Slowly they strolled down the street, making their way back to the house.

"Oh, it was good to go out, get some fresh air, and _do _something." she said, pausing for a moment to relish the bright sun.

"Yeah, I figured you were close to going stir crazy in the hospital." Kankuro said his hands tucked into his pockets.

Today he had forgone wearing the magenta face paint and for the first time Kohana could see his face properly. She could see the similarities between him and Gaara more clearly now. But even in light of this new information she still preferred to perv on Gaara.

"Hey! Kohana!"

Kohana stopped and turned to the sound of her name being called, only to find Dai running down the street towards her.

"Hey, Dai." Kohana said giving a wave.

Dai practically skidded to a halt in front of them both, a wide grin on her face.

"So I heard you had managed to escape the confines of the hospital."

"You heard correctly." Kohana replied with a grin of her own, "And Kankuro graciously offered to let me stay at his place, now he is giving me a tour of your lovely village."

Dai gave him a suspicious pointed look, "Yes, 'cause he's such a _gentleman_." she said, sarcasm lightly lacing her words.

Kankuro just grinned and stuffed his hands into his pockets, wisely deciding that it would be best to just not say a word.

"So what are you doing?" Kohana asked, forcing Dai to focus her attention back to her.

"Just a few errands." she replied, "Speaking of which, I gotta go."

"Oh, ok. Well have fun." Kohana said as Dai moved off.

Dai waved back at her, "You too. See ya!" And with that she disappeared into the crowd.

Kohana turned to Kankuro, a suspicious look now on her face.

"A _gentleman_, huh?"

He turned away from her with a grin, "I refuse to say anything on the grounds that it may just incriminate me."

Kohana just laughed and shook her head.

"Come on, let's get back to the house, the heat is starting to get to me." she said.

"Gladly." Kankuro replied, he waved his hand in front of him, "Ladies first."

She laughed again as they made their way down the street.

***

The night was late and as usual, Gaara was still awake. He sat in the armchair, a book in his lap, the only light coming from the lamp that sat on a small round table next to him, and stared out the window to the streets. It happened sometimes, this insomnia, lasting anywhere from a day up to several weeks. He usually filled in the extra waking hours with work, but tonight he didn't feel like reading report after report. Not that he could concentrate on any work anyway, not with his thoughts constantly pulling him back to the dark-haired woman that currently resided in the spare room. An ache began to throb behind his eyes and he massaged the bridge of his nose. He didn't know _why_ he couldn't stop thinking of her, it was frustrating. His mind flashed to the delicious massage that she gave him last night and his eyes half closed in memory. That had been wonderful, something that he would jump at the chance to have again. A thought struck him then, would she do it again? He wasn't sure. He could always ask, but that would be rude.

But...

She had said 'anytime'. Surely that was an indication that she would be willing to do it again? Gaara stood up, catching the book before it slid off his lap and setting it on the coffee table, and he walked out of the lounge room and to her bedroom door. As he raised his knuckles to give a light tap on the closed door he stopped. This was madness! It was late and she was probably asleep by now, what on earth was he thinking!

The door suddenly opened and Gaara was frozen to the spot, hand still raised. Kohana stood there, an amused expression on her face.

"You took too long to knock." she said, "It was starting to enter the territory of 'lurking'."

Gaara lowered his hand, "Sorry. I only realised that you might have been asleep and waking you just seemed... rude." he muttered, his face starting to go red with a blush. Why the hell was he _blushing_!

Kohana's shoulders shook with silent laughter, "How can I help you?" she asked once she managed to regain use of her voice.

"Uh... I..." Gaara's words fled from his mind leaving him garbled, "wondering...?" his voice trailed off as he face grew more heated, he felt like a fool. Luckily Kohana seemed to understand.

"Did you want a massage?" she asked gently.

Mutely, he nodded, his eyes fixed to the floor.

"Ok," his head shot up to stared at her in surprise, "But I'm going to do it properly this time. Go back out to the lounge room and push that coffee table to the side of the room." she flapped her hands at him, "I'll be out in a minute."

Shocked, Gaara obeyed. Kohana just gave a smile and hobbled over to her bag. Her foot was basically healed by now and the crutches were no longer really needed. She searched through her clothes until she found a small black lacquered box. Clutching it she limped out to the lounge room to find Gaara sitting on the edge of the couch, his back straight and tense. The coffee table had been pushed to the side leaving a nice clear spot in the middle of the floor. Kohana settled herself on the floor and patted the empty ground in front of her.

"Down here." She said to Gaara.

A little confused Gaara slid from the couch to the floor and shuffled around until he sat with his back to her.

"Now, I need you to take off your shirt."

Gaara shot her a shocked look, this was new. She tilted her head slightly to the side and gave a reassuring smile.

"It's alright, I said I wanted to do this properly, and that requires skin contact."

He still hesitated.

"Trust me."

A shiver ran down his spine. Those words again, those words that required surrendering something of himself to her. Did she understand the full implication of those two words? He looked at her and realised that yes, she did understand. Slowly he lifted his shirt up, slowly surrendering.

Kohana watched as he took off his shirt. She simply waited. She had seen the shock in his eyes when she had asked him to remove his shirt, the reluctance. She had realised something in that moment, the Kazekage was much, much more vulnerable then she first realised. She suddenly remembered that this man had once carried a demon soul within his body. What had that done to him? That invasion of his soul by someone who probably didn't want to even be there. What scars had that experience left him with? He dropped the shirt to the side.

"Now lay down on your stomach." her words were soft, quiet and reassuring. Barely louder than a whisper.

But he obeyed.

Stretched out before her he pillowed his head on his arms, his face turned towards her. Kohana opened the black lacquered box and pulled out a glass jar of scented oil. She poured a little on his back then a little into her cupped hand before replacing the stopper, setting it back in the box, and rubbed her hands together. Once her hands were warmed she then placed them on Gaara's back and started to rub.

When the little jar of oil was opened Gaara was hit with a sharp citrus scent, which after a few moments mellowed out. He almost gave a moan of pleasure when her hands started to press into the muscles on his back, soothing away all the knots of tension that had built up over the day. His eyes slid shut as her fingers worked around his shoulders.

Her hands glided over his skin, drawing patterns that had been drummed into her for months, allowing her mind to wonder off a bit. She just couldn't get over just how perfectly sculpted his back was, just how smooth and flawless the skin was. She gave a quiet sigh of envy; she wished her skin looked as good as his did. All the training and fighting that he had gone through in his life had sculpted his muscles to almost perfection. She feel them all under her fingers as she massaged out the knots, this led her to wonder what the muscles in the other parts of his body would feel like under her fingers. The thought was so attractive that she was sorely tempted to just grope his perfect backside. But with a slight shudder she restrained herself. She couldn't do that, it would betray the small piece of trust that he had given her, and somehow she knew that once gone, that trust could never be gotten again. Now that the Kazekage was nice and relaxed she decided to ask him a question that had been floating around her brain since she first laid eyes on him.

"Gaara," she said softly, "I was wondering, why you have got the character for 'love' on your forehead?"

The tension that ran across his shoulders told Kohana that she had hit upon a somewhat sore spot. Smoothly she moved her hands to rub out the new line of tension.

"It's alright if you don't want to tell me," She continued, "I was just merely curious."

Slowly Gaara relaxed again. But his mind whirled, what would she do if she found out the truth? He was suddenly afraid of what her reaction would be, what if she couldn't accept it?

The silence stretched out for a few minutes before Gaara took a deep breath. Only one way to find out because at the same time that he was afraid, he also desperately wanted her to know.

"When I was born," he began his voice barely louder than a whisper, and even though she hadn't moved he knew that all her attention was focused in on him. He closed his eyes, hoping that it would somehow make it easier to talk about. "A... horrible thing was done to me. I grew up alone and the day that I found out just how alone I was, I put the character on my forehead. To remind me that only I alone could love me. Because no one else would."

"The sad fate of all Jinchuriki.'" Kohana said quietly, her heart going out to the boy he once was.

Gaaras eyes shot open and he pushed himself up to a sitting position to face her directly.

"You know?" he asked urgently, grabbing her shoulders. How did she find out? No one in the village talked about it, no one!

Kohana bit her bottom lip as Gaara shot up, her bloody mouth again, this time it just dug a six foot deep grave for her. She looked straight in his eyes, the look that he had, the look of wanting and need that she saw there. He wanted her to understand and accept, he needed her to. She gave a quiet sigh, what are a few more feet to the grave?

"Yes. I know."

He looked at her, waiting.

"And if you don't relax then you will undo all the hard work I just did." she finished, wagging a finger in his face with a mock frown, "Now lay back down so I finish."

Something in Gaara relaxed, she wasn't repulsed, wasn't scared. He lay back down on his stomach and as Kohana resume her massage she made a sound of annoyance.

"Now look what you've done. You got yourself all tense again."

At the sound of the gentle chiding Gaara relaxed further beneath her skilled hands. She knew, and she accepted. But there was one last thing...

"How did you find out?" He asked after a few minutes.

Kohana sucked in a breath, "How about we call it intuition and leave it at that?"

He shifted to look at her, "Intuition?"

She pushed on his shoulders, forcing him back down, "Yes, healers intuition." she said firmly.

Gaara managed to shoot her a look from the floor. She looked back at him, pleading on her face.

"Please?"

He gave a slow blink, it would seem that he was not the only one to have secrets, "A healer, huh? That explains a lot."

She frowned, "what's that suppose to mean?"

He gave a small smile at her, "Healers and doctors always make the worst patients."

She gave an angry pout which sent his shoulders shaking with silent laughter. He would allow her her secrets.

For now, at least.

***

Kohana sat curled up on the armchair reading one of the books that she had found on the book shelf. Since both Gaara and Kankuro were busy today she assured them both that she would be fine by herself, and had spent most of the day curled up in the armchair. Suddenly her head snapped up, dropping the book she scrambled out of the chair and limped quickly over to the front door. She reached the door and yanked it open.

"Kuro!"

Kuro stood at the door, in his human form, his hand raised just about to knock. A grin broke over Kohana's face and she lunged forward to wrap her arms around his neck. With a grin of his own, Kuro simply wrapped his arms around her in return. After a minute Kuro detangled himself from Kohana and held her at arm's length.

"I see that you are healing well." he said, cocking his head to the side.

She shrugged his hands off, "Of course I am. In another couple of days I'll be able to take off the bandage, for now it's helping with the support." she grabbed his hand and dragged him inside, "What did Sensei say?"

Kuro pulled the backpack off before sitting down on the couch next to Kohana, a slight frown on his face.

"Well, actually... Sensei is coming here."

Silence, then...

"WHAT!"

"She'll be here roughly tomorrow evening." Kuro continued.

Kohana chewed her bottom lip, "She's coming 'cause of Gaara, isn't she?"

Kuro nodded. Kohana groaned, she liked her Sensei, she truly did, but she was a _very_ formidable woman with no patience for idiots.

"Hmmm, I didn't realise that the whole Jinchuriki thing was serious enough to get her to actually come here." Kohana said, thinking out loud, a thought occurred to her, "How is Sensei getting here?"

A look of wicked mischief crossed Kuro's face, "Her and Grey are coming up on Jet, it was the fastest way that she could reach Suna."

A snort of laughter escaped from Kohana, that was going to be priceless. Her Sensei hated flying, Grey hated it as well.

"I take it Jet volunteered for this privilege?" she asked, barely able to keep in a fit of giggles.

"With great relish and the smug knowledge that they didn't really have any other choice of who they flew with." Kuro replied with a smug grin of his own.

Kohana couldn't help it, she broke down with laughter. Jet was Kuro's older brother, but was about twice the size of Kuro. Preferred when there were two passengers to consider. However, Jet had a very wicked sense of humour and she knew that the flight for her Sensei would be anything but soothing. He would tilt, dive, bank, and any other flying acrobat that he could get away with, just to fray her Sensei's nerves. After several minutes she managed to calm down enough to be able to speak again.

"I take it that is why you are currently in your human form?" She asked, wiping a tear from her eye.

"Yeah," Kuro replied giving the back of his neck a scratch, "Sensei insisted, she said that she didn't want to run the risk of anyone seeing either me or Grey change to human form anytime she had a question or something."

"Makes sense." She chewed on a fingernail, "I suppose I'll have to tell Gaara that you're a close friend or something."

"Speaking of which, how did you end up here?" Kuro asked with a mock glare, "I went to the hospital and they told me you were staying at the Kazekage's house." he nudged her with his elbow and gave a suggestive wink.

Kohana blushed, "Actually, I'm here with the Kazekage _and_ his brother." she smacked him across the arm, "And there is nothing going on between me or either of them."

Kuro just held up his hands, "If you say so."

She just shot him a dirty glare.

The front door opened and Kankuro walked in, stopping when he saw Kuro. Kohana gave him a bright smile.

"Kankuro this is my very good friend Kuro." she said brightly.

***

Gaara sat at the desk in his bedroom, his head in his hands as he gathered himself together. He could hear the other three talking and laughing. When he had walked into the house thirty minutes ago and had been introduced to Kohana's close friend he had felt a flash of an unfamiliar feeling flow through him. It made him want to be incredibly petty and sulky towards the new boy. It didn't make sense! He wanted to beat the other boy silly, this feeling baffled him. Right now he was trying to squash it deep down in his mind so that he could go out and join them without doing something incredibly stupid.

Slowly he breathed in and then out, then repeated the process. After a few more minutes he managed to wretch his wayward and baffling feelings together and stood up.

Kuro glanced up when he saw Gaara walk into the lounge room. He hadn't missed the flash of jealousy that had flickered across the Kazekage's face when Kohana introduced him, and he was pretty sure that Kohana missed it entirely. He gave a smile as he watched Gaara sit in the armchair out of the corner of his eye. If the Kazekage was having jealous attacks about Kohana's 'close male friends' then this was going to be very interesting. He looked at Kohana and gave a slight shake of his head, the girl had no idea. Although he had to grant that Gaara was very good at hiding his feelings so he supposed Kohana wasn't entirely to blame.

"Um... Gaara?" Kohana asked sweetly, when he looked at her directly she continued, "I was wondering if it was alright if Kuro could stay here as well for the next few days?"

Kuro bit the inside of his cheek to stop from laughing at the way that Gaara's jaw suddenly clenched. Kohana didn't seem to notice anything, but, interestingly enough, Kankuro did. It also looked like that Kankuro was fighting some urges to laugh as well. That was good, Kuro thought, he wasn't the only one. Kohana took the extended silence as hesitation, rather then what it really was, Gaara having an internal battle with his own emotions.

"Please?" she said, her bottom lip pouting ever so slightly, "He can sleep on the couch."

Gaara drew a deep breath and let it out in a gusty sigh, "Alright, but I will take the couch, you can take my bed and Kuro can take the guest bed."

Kohana gave a squeal of delight and a very large grin. Kuro could swear that Gaara practically melted into a puddle underneath that grin. He bit the inside of his cheek again; whatever was he going to do with her?

"Thank you Kazekage." Kuro said with bright grin of his own, might as well not give the Kazekage any more reason to hate him.

"It's quite alright." Gaara replied.

Gaara could find no real reason why he didn't like Kuro. He had been nothing but polite and nice, but there was just something about him that was... weird. Gaara gave up trying to decipher his feelings and concentrated instead on just squashing them and listening to the conversation. He would deal with them later.

"You have the same name as that crow that Kohana had with her, why is that?" Kankuro asked.

Kuro scratched his nose, "Actually 'Kuro' is more of a nick name of mine, and besides Kohana named the crow after me."

"That's 'cause you act like a pain-in-the-as-crow at times." Kohana said sweetly, "So, I figured why not have a crow with your name?"

They all had a laugh, even Kuro, even though he had been the butt of the jibe.

"Touché." Kuro said, merriment and mischief lighting up his dark eyes, "But, you forget, _I_ came first."

He watched out of the corner of his eye to see if the remark had affected Gaara, the slight twitch told him that he succeeded. Oh this was going to be a fun. Kohana just pegged one of the small cushions from the couch at his head.

"That's 'cause nothing else could get around that ego of yours."

Kuro just stuck his tongue out at her.

Gaara watched, envious of the easy rapport that they had with each other.

Kankuro watched his brother and gave a quiet sigh. He knew that Kuro was baiting Gaara, and Gaara was falling for it without even knowing. He rested his chin on his hand, wondering what would happen first - Kohana's foot healing up enough for her to travel or Gaara giving into his urge to whack the smug grin off Kuro's face.

Only one way to find out.

Kankuro grinned and settled down to watch the show.


	4. Chapter 4

New Chapter! I am so happy that people are reading this! ^.^ In case you haven't noticed by now I try to update once a week but I would love reviews, they make me feel warm and fuzzy and inspire me to write more. Another thing, Gaara might seem a bit OOC, but I don't really care overly much. So until next week, read, review, and give me much love so that I will write more.

P.S Whilst constructive criticism is taken under serious consideration, outright flaming will simply be used to keep my toes warm as I continue to write. Enjoy!

Chapter Four

Kohana happily used the crutches to swing her way down the street towards the hospital on her way to see the doctor. After all it wasn't often that she got to use crutches and there was a certain amount of fun to be had with them. Kuro just walked beside her, trying to convince her to let him have a go. Kohana had refused him.

"No, medical equipment are not toys." Kohana told him.

Kuro just shot her a look, "And what do you think you are doing?"

"I'm using them. I _am_ the one with a crippled foot, remember."

Kuro just gave a snort as they arrived at the hospital and walked in.

"Crippled, my ass." he muttered.

Kohana 'accidently' stepped on his foot with one of the crutches.

"Ow!" he said, hopping back from her, "You know, violence is the last refuge of the weak witted."

Kohana poked her tongue out at him, "Yet violence is so more effective and satisfying." she said before walking over to the front desk. Kuro sat down in one of the waiting area chairs with a grin, stretching his feet out before him and tucking his arms behind his head. Last night had been the first time that he had slept in human form and it had been a very interesting experience to say the least, not to mention really weird when he woke up. It had been a brief moment of panic, followed by some flailing and falling out of the bed to end with a sheepish look around in case anyone had entered and seen him make a complete fool of himself. Kohana came back and sat down next to him to wait. Yes, Kuro was very glad no one saw him this morning, because if Kohana had gotten wind of it she would've laughed herself sick.

Ten minutes later Kohana was in the doctor's office, leaving Kuro out in the waiting room by himself, with her unbandage foot in the doctor's lap, his hands glowing green with chakra as he examined it.

"Well, this is in very good shape now. I've just strengthened it, but you can walk normally on it now." he let her foot drop and grabbed his stethoscope. Placing one hand just beneath her collar bones and the stethoscope on her back he said, "Ok, now breathe deep."

Kohana could feel the chakra from the hand on her chest as tendrils wove their way through her torso, giving her a peculiar itching feeling. She wanted to just reach in and give it a good scratch; instead she took a deep breath. The stethoscope moved lower down her back.

"And again."

She took another deep breath.

"Ok." The doctor removed his hand, pulling back the chakra tendrils, and sat down on the seat in front of his desk writing something down on the paper, "Well, you are the picture of health, which is more then I could say when you were first bought in here." he looked up at her, "I now declare you fit enough to travel."

Kohana jumped off the examination bed with a grin. "Thank you." she said before walking over to the door.

"No problem, just doing my job. Good bye now and travel safely."

Kohana let herself out and strolled out to the waiting room and collected Kuro before walking out of the hospital, heartily glad to be seeing the last of it.

Soon they were back at Gaara's house and Kohana flopped herself down on the couch. Kuro remained standing.

"Now all we have to do is deal with is Sensei." she muttered. She covered her face with her hands, "Do you think we should warn them?" her voice was muffled.

Kuro crossed his arms, "It would be the polite thing to do, wouldn't it? Personally, I think you get funnier reactions from people if they're not forewarned."

Kohana snorted, "Not everyone is as fond as unusual and unexpected surprises as you are." She sat up properly, letting her hands fall away from her face, "I'll have to tell them this afternoon."

"Ok." Kuro said with a shrug, "Meanwhile, I'm not going to sit here for the rest of the day twiddling my thumbs."

"Your right, I don't wanna do that either. I'll just keep thinking of all the ways this visit can go horribly wrong." She jumped up, sliding her arm around Kuro's, "Come, I'll take you on a tour of the village as Kankuro showed me."

Kuro gave a one sided grin, "I think I've seen more of the village then you have."

"Ah, but you haven't seen it from ground level."

"True."

"Then let's go." with that Kohana tugged him out the door.

***

Gaara massaged the bridge of his nose.

"So, let me get this straight. Your Sensei will be here this evening."

Kohana and Kuro nodded.

"And she is here to see... me?"

More nodding.

"Why?"

Kuro suddenly found the ceiling to be most entertaining and Kohana nervously scratched the back of her neck.

"Well..." she trailed off.

Gaara crossed his arms and gave her a level stare. Kohana figited with the hem of her shirt.

"She wants to talk to you. Just to get some information, that's all."

His eyes narrowed, "What kind of information?"

Kuro gave an exasperated sigh, throwing his hands up in the air.

"Sensei just wants to know about the demon that you had locked inside you."

Gaara went deadly still, staring at both of them intently. Kuro just returned the stare. Kohana laid her hand lightly on Kuro's arm and looked at Gaara.

"She just wants information. That's it." she said softly.

After a few more tense moments Gaara relaxed, running his hand through his hair. "Fine. I suppose she wants to stay here as well?"

"Oh no," Kohana said, waving her hands, "Sensei and Grey will be staying at the inn."

"That's good. When did you say she would be here?"

"Sometime in the next couple of hours." Kohana replied with a cheery smile.

Gaara just gave an absent nod.

Forty five minutes later Kuro jerked to his feet.

"She's here."

Quickly Kohana surged to her feet and followed Kuro out the front door. She looked down the street and could see her walking purposely up the street. Walking beside her, hands stuffed into pockets, was Grey. Kohana gave a shout and waved. An answering shout and wave was received. Gaara strolled out of the house to look at the woman who wanted to question him. As she got closer, he was struck by how young she was. She looked only a few years older than his tender age of nineteen. Her hair was a dark red colour pulled into a high ponytail. Her eyes, when she was closer, were a light spring green colour. She wore a long skirt and a top which was nothing more than a strip of material that wrapped around her breasts. Kohana and Kuro stood respectfully whilst their teacher approached, but when they were within range Kohana threw herself at her teacher, wrapping her arms around her. Her Sensei returned the hug with an equal amount of affection.

"So," the other woman's voice was light and sharp, "Where is this Gaara fellow?"

Kohana pointed to Gaara, whom was standing behind both her and Kuro, "Sensei, this is Gaara. Gaara this is my Sensei."

The woman moved past her student and grabbed Gaara's chin with one of her hands. She tilted his head from side to side and hmm'ed for a moment. Gaara offered no resistance, too surprised by her manner to do so.

"Well," her hand fell away, "You can just call me Azami. Shall we go inside?"

Dumbly Gaara reacted automatically, shifting aside and holding his hand out to indicate that she should go in first. With a smile and a pat on his cheek, she walked in followed by the man that arrived with her. As he walked past he gave a wolfish grin at Gaara. Kohana and Kuro followed after with Kohana gently touching Gaara's arm.

"She is a formidable woman, but she _is_ kind. Try not to let her phase you too much."

Gaara shook his head, "I'm fine, I was just taken a little off guard."

Kohana grinned and linked her arm through his, walking into the house with him. When they got inside, they found that Azami and Grey had already made themselves comfortable on the couch, whilst Kuro had settled himself on the floor. Gaara sat himself down in the armchair as Kohana settled on the floor next to Kuro.

"Right." Azami said once everyone was seated, "No point beating around the bush, Grey." Grey turned to her, "Tell me what you sense from the boy."

Grey turned to Gaara, fixing him a predator's stare. He cocked his head to the side as if he was listening to something.

"A lot of anger. Pain. But it is fading. The demon soul has been gone for only a few years."

Gaara went pale, an extraordinary feat considering his complexion, "How do you know that?" he asked hoarsely.

A look of surprise planted itself on Azami's face, "How else, Grey's a... "She trailed off when she saw the Kazekage's face. She turned to Kohana, "You didn't tell him, did you!"

Kohana gave a shrug, "You told me not to tell anyone."

Azami slapped her hand to her forehead, "Given the circumstances, I think it would have been somewhat alright to tell him."

"Tell me what." Gaara demanded, regaining some colour.

Azami made a little noise of annoyance, "Grey here is a demon. So is Kuro. That's how they can sense the residual demon chakra that's still in your body."

Gaara just froze up; whatever colour he had regained was quickly lost again. Suddenly a piece clicked into place in his head. He looked to Kuro.

"You're the crow." he said, his voice no louder than a harsh whisper.

Kuro nodded, giving a cheeky grin. Kohana crawled over so that she was next to Gaara's chair, a worried look on her face.

"Sensei, I think you broke him." She said with concern suffusing her voice.

"Nonsense," Azami said with a wave of her hand, "He'll be fine. Although perhaps I should give him the night to let this new information settle in." she stood up and walked over to Gaara, crouching down in front of him.

Gaara could only stare wide eyed into the sharp green eyes of the woman before him. She gave a soft smile and patted his cheek.

"You'll be fine boy; we'll talk more in the morning." She stood up, "Come Grey, we'll go get ourselves settled into an inn."

With that they exited. After they had gone Kuro shifted himself to the couch, but Kohana stayed kneeling beside Gaara. She rested her hand lightly on his knee.

"Are you alright?"

A shudder ran right throughout his body.

"No." Was all he said.

His mind was racing around in circles. Demons! Two of them! Right here in his village! He looked at Kuro, that one had been here for several days! He was confused, everything that he had learned and experienced in his life all said that demons were bad news. They were nothing more then monsters that seek destruction.

But... Kuro hadn't done anything destructive, hadn't gone on a killing rampage. The worst he had done was be annoying. Gaara's arms wrapped around his torso, hands fisting up in the fabric of his shirt as he leaned forward over his legs. What was he suppose to do? He was the Kazekage, for fucks sake, it was his job to protect the village!

"Gaara?"

That soft gentle voice pierced his chaotic thoughts and he turned to look at Kohana. He saw her face full of concern. Those dark midnight blue eyes searching his.

"There are demons in my village." He whispered, only just barely loud enough for her to hear, turning his head away from her.

Her hands shot out and grabbed his head, forcing him to look at her again. As he was forced to look at her eyes again he noticed that with the worry that she had for him there was something else lurking beneath. A determination; something steely, feral and fierce. Something that gave him shivers - although he wasn't sure if it was a bad thing or a good thing.

"Listen, and listen well." her voice was just as fierce as her gaze, "_Not_ all demons are bad! They are just as varied in their personalities and attitudes as people are, and in most ways people are much more destructive then demons."

Gaara gave a small sound of protest, but before he could continue he was cut off.

"I know that you have seen the very worst sides of humanity _and_ demons." Tears were staring to leak from the corners of her eyes, "But you found a way to forgive humanity, can you not do the same for the demons?"

She released him then, her hands falling to lie in her lap as tears continued to leak from behind her closed lids. Gaara continued to stare at her, his fists slowly unclenching.

She was right. He had found a way to forgive humanity, because of one golden-hair boy who had shared the same fate as his but had still seen the very best that life could offer him. Just as Naruto had steadfastedly believed in the good of humanity, so too did this woman believe in the best of demon kind. When faced with the kind of steady and strong faith that Naruto had, he had changed his perceptions and beliefs and had been the better off for it. Now again he was faced with that same strong faith, so how could he do any less?

Gaara reached out a hand to brush Kohana's cheek, but before he could she turned away and stood up. Without a word she walked out the front door, Kuro close on her heels. He sighed and ran his hands through his hair, he wanted to talk to Naruto, he could help him clear his head and thoughts. Yes, he thought firmly, he would send a message to Konoha requesting Naruto come as soon as possible. He stood up and walked out of the house, heading for his office, all the while thinking...

Could he do any less?

***

Gaara sat in his office, too distracted to work but unwilling to go home. He had sent off the letter to Konoha via a very swift messenger bird and had received a reply the next day saying that Naruto was on his way. He leaned back and rubbed his face, that was three days ago. After he had sent off the message he had gone back home and a few hours later Kohana had returned. Without saying anything she had gathered up her things and walked out. It was Kuro who told him that they were going to go stay in the same inn as their Sensei. Not knowing what else to do Gaara had allowed her to go. The next day, just after he had received the reply from Konoha, he had met with Azami.

Four days. He had asked her to wait four days. She had asked him why and he told her the truth, that his friend from Konoha was on his way and that he also was a Jinchuriki. She had given him a measured look for a few long moments before accepting the delay. Now he sat in his office, waiting for Naruto, his thoughts and feelings about the fact that not all demons were evil monsters were still churning in confusion. Once Naruto arrived, however, he would have a day to talk to his friend and get his thoughts and feelings in order.

He leaned back in his chair, closing his eyes. Just a few more hours and Naruto will be here.

Kohana lingered outside the door to Kazekage's office. She was in turmoil, it had been three days since she had talked to Gaara and she wanted to talk to him again. She rested her forehead against the wood of the door and gave a quiet sigh. She wasn't even sure how she should approach him, she hadn't said anything when she had gathered up her things and taken them to the inn. She was too upset at the time and was afraid of saying something that she would regret. Since then she had hidden in her room with only Kuro, Grey and Azami to keep her company. Reaching up her hand she let it rest lightly on the doorknob.

Should she?

Suddenly she heard the sounds of hurried footsteps coming her way. Startled she pulled away from the door like it had burned her and set off down the hallway in the opposite direction of the footsteps. It would seem that the decision was made for her. Not today then, maybe tomorrow.

Gaara's eyes flew open, he could sense someone coming to his office very quickly, someone he knew. A few seconds later the double doors to his office flew open. Standing there, framed by the doorway and looking a bit out of breath, was Naruto. Walking in and flopping down in one of the chairs that was in front of the Kazekage's desk he gave his wide trademark grin.

"Well, I'm here. Got anything to drink?"

Gaara simply gave a smile of his own, Naruto was earlier then he expected, but then again he should have expected that. It was Naruto after all.

"I think we should adjourn to my house, this is mostly a personal matter that I want to discuss with you."

Concern crossed Naruto's face, "Sure."

An hour later they were seated in Gaara's lounge room, empty glasses sitting on the coffee table as he finished relaying to his friend the events that had transpired over the last week regarding Kohana and her demon crow Kuro.

Naruto just sat there, hands clenched over his knees and a serious, strange look on his face.

"Woah, this is... is..." Naruto trailed off unable to find adequate words to describe the situation.

"I know," Gaara said dragging both his hands through his hair, "I still feel like that and I've had three days to adjust to it."

A look of deep thinking crossed Naruto's face, making him frown a little, his hands unclenching to relax on his lap as he absorbed the information. Gaara leaned back in his armchair to wait patiently. Naruto had changed in the past couple of years. Not only physically but also mentally. He had obtained some measure of maturity and a deeper sense of responsibility; he thought things through a bit more before committing to action. Oh to be sure he was still impulsive, loud and quick to smile, he wouldn't be Naruto otherwise, but Gaara could see the makings of someone who would one day make a truly good Hokage.

"I think I would like to meet them." Naruto said suddenly, breaking Gaara out of his musings.

Gaara gave a nod, "I'll be meeting with them tomorrow. Would that be alright?"

Naruto gave a nod of his own, "Yeah, that'll be fine."

Suddenly Gaara saw just how weary Naruto looked; he must've lost sleep to get here quickly.

"Why don't you take the spare room and get some rest?" he offered.

"Spare room? Who moved out?" Naruto asked, slightly surprised and curious.

"Temari. She said she wanted some privacy in her life for once." Gaara said, his face completely straight, "She also seemed to have something wrong with some of the comments that Kankuro and I made after the nights that Shikamaru stayed here."

Naruto gave a snort and a laugh whilst Gaara gave a grin of his own.

"I'll accept your offer then." Naruto said once he calmed down, "and some sleep would be welcome."

"Then go."

Naruto stood up and gathered up his back pack and turned to walk off.

"Naruto," Naruto paused and turned back to Gaara, "Thank you for coming."

Naruto grinned, "Your one of my closest friends, how could I do any less?"

He turned back then, heading off for the spare room whilst Gaara remained seated his thoughts turning inwards. Even though he had done nothing more then to listen to his story, Naruto had been an immense help already. Gaara found that laying out is story such had helped to bring it into perspective for him and he saw that Kuro could have had a hundred chances already to do serious damage to his village.

Then there was Kohana. She had claimed that Kuro was her partner, got quite offended by the assumption that he was a pet. She had shown him, with her words, that she saw Kuro as an equal. Not a monster, not an abomination, she treated Kuro like he was human. He had seen it, in the way she had bantered, teased and laughed with and at him.

Resting his elbow on the arm of the chair and his chin in his palm he stared off into space.

_"... you found a way to forgive humanity, can you not do the same for demons?"_

She had asked that, with tears falling from her eyes she had asked him. But could he? He closed his eyes as one simple realisation suddenly hit him with enough force to steal his breath for a moment.

Yes, he could.

And that was Kuro's doing. Kuro, who had been nothing but polite and kind towards Gaara. Who had proven that he was no better and no worse than the average human. Kohana had told him that the personalities of demons were as varied as humans were. He had just had bad luck to be exposed to the worst side. But, like Naruto had shown him the better side of humanity, Kuro had shown him a better side to demons.

His thoughts churned endlessly for hours. But it all came back, endlessly circling, to one thought.

How could he do any less?

He couldn't.


	5. Chapter 5

Next chapter is here ^.^ So enjoy and review.

Chapter Five

Nervously Gaara waited in his office, Naruto seated in one of the chairs opposite the desk. A polite knock sounded on the wooden doors.

"Come in." Gaara said no indication of his nervousness showing.

The doors opened and in walked Azami and Kohana with Grey and Kuro following them. Naruto turned to look at them as they walked in and the reactions were instantaneous.

Kohana flinched away with Kuro giving an avian hiss at Naruto and spreading his arms in front of Kohana. Grey instantly gave a low growl and stepped in front of Azami, one arm held out protectively in front of her.

Azami, however, grabbed Grey's arm and pushed past to step in front of a bemused and surprised Naruto. Grey's hand shot out to grab her shoulder, a low whimper sounding in his throat.

"Grey, it's alright." Azami said softly detaching his hand from her shoulder. She turned to study Naruto grabbing his chin and tilting his head back and forth, just looking. Naruto just stared back at her, surprised enough to let her keep her hold on his chin.

"Grey?" Azami asked quietly.

Grey took a deep breath, blowing it out gustily in an expression of annoyance and anger.

"Pain, anger, bitterness and envy." He took a step so that he was standing next to Azami and glared at Naruto, "He knows Kuro and I are here. He is jealous."

Gaara could only stare at the scene unfolding in surprise. This was the last thing he had ever expected to happen. But what surprised him the most was the last comment. However it was Naruto who beat him to the question.

"Kyuubi is jealous?" Naruto's voice was surprised, disbelief echoing throughout every word.

Azami dropped her hand from his chin, a look of pain and sadness crossing her face. Kohana pushed past Kuro to stand next to the desk, Kuro instantly stepped to her side. She was shocked; this boy had the Kyuubi within him?! She gripped at the desk, this was madness! How could any human survive Kyuubi within their body? Within their soul?!

Azami reached up her hands to grasp either side of Naruto's face, a look of pity now etched into her features.

"Boy, what's your name?" she asked sadly.

"Naruto." he replied quietly, thoroughly unnerved by this strange woman he had only just met. Within his mind he could feel Kyuubi churning furiously.

"How long have you had this demon within you?"

"All... all my life." He muttered.

Azami turned to Grey, "How?" was all she asked.

Grey gave a sigh and looked away, "Kyuubi is incomplete."

Azami let her hands fall away from Naruto's face and sat down in the other seat next to him. Her bright spring green eyes suddenly looking ageless and tired. She looked back at Naruto.

"Grey, we need to tag him." she said.

"Certainly." Grey reached out a hand towards Naruto.

Gaara half rose in his chair, but Naruto jumped to his feet and skittered out of range of Grey his own hand going to his weapons pouch.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, what do you mean by 'tag'." he said, his voice almost a growl.

Azami held up a placating hand and spoke quickly, "It's alright, it won't hurt, nor affect you in any way. You won't even know it's there."

"Then why?"

"It's just so that I can keep track of you. One day you are going to die-" a low growl sounded from Naruto "-and Kyuubi will be released. The tag will let me know when that will happen so that I can be there to help contain Kyuubi."

Naruto's hand dropped from the weapons pouch, "You can keep Kyuubi away from other people?" he asked.

"Yes."

Silence stretched between them for a few moments before his shoulders slumped slightly and he gave a nod. Gaara relaxed back into his chair.

It happened so quickly. Grey stepped forward again and Naruto suddenly dropped to his knees, his hands clenching at his head as red chakra poured from his body rapidly. Gaara blinked as he was suddenly engulfed in a sphere of blue-black and silver chakra. And even though the chakra was swirling around him, he found he could still see clearly through it to scene unfolding before. Around Azami was a sphere of silver chakra and around Kohana was a sphere of blue-black chakra. Grey was blazing with silver chakra, one hand around Naruto's throat keeping him pinned to the ground, without choking him, and his other hand against his forehead. Kuro was blazing with the blue-black chakra and was keeping the rest of Naruto pinned, mostly preventing the red chakra from flailing around.

Grey spoke his voice rough and filled with a growl, "Just because I'm in human form, don't mistake me for being weak fox!"

The red eyes glared out from Naruto's face and gave a growl. Grey just glared right back at him the hand on the forehead now drawing symbols in the glowing silver chakra that Gaara didn't recognise.

"Go back, fox." he warned.

Slowly, the red chakra started to retreat. But it was too slow. One of the chakra tails escaped Kuro's grasp to fling around straight at Azami. With a bright sizzle of light it was stopped by the silver sphere of chakra that surrounded her. Azami hadn't even flinched. The silver chakra around Grey shifted to take the form of a wolf, and when Grey moved his head the chakra head moved as well to quickly grasp the errant red tail. With a savage twist the red chakra tail was torn away, dissolving, followed by a savage feral scream from Naruto. But the red chakra continued to dissolve and fade back into his body.

The eyes were the last to change, fading from the red to the bright summer-sky blue. Those eyes blinked a few times in confusion.

"What happened?" Naruto mumbled, his voice a little hoarse.

The two demons relaxed then, their chakra seeping back within themselves. The shield surrounding Gaara trickled away and disappeared. It was then that Gaara realised that he was shaking. He shoved his hands between his legs to hide the shaking until he could gather himself together. Naruto had told him about this, but this was the first time he had ever seen the Kyuubi assert itself over his friends' body and if what Naruto had told him was accurate then this wasn't even the worst that it could get. He took a deep, even breath to help steady himself as Azami helped Naruto back into his chair. To the other side of his desk a pale faced Kohana was being held up by Kuro who was actually shaking as bad as Gaara was. This surprised the Kazekage, somehow he didn't see the crow demon as someone who was easily intimidated. Only Azami and Grey seemed unshaken.

"Has this happened before?" Azami asked Naruto a little too sharply.

Numbly Naruto nodded. Azami just drew in a deep breath and released it in a silent sigh.

"You are sorely unfortunate, boy, and truly, I feel for you. However," she turned to Gaara, "I came here originally to get answers to questions."

Gaara inclined his head, "Then ask." he said, thanking the heavens that his voice didn't sound as shaken up as he felt.

"You have obviously had the demon removed from you. How on earth did you survive? Every removal process I have heard about has been fatal to the human host."

Gaara opened his mouth to reply...

"He didn't." The mumbled words came from Naruto, "When the Akatsuki took Shukaku out he died. But old lady Chiyo bought him back to life." Naruto was slumped low in the chair, his eyelids half closed.

Azami's attention was focused on him, keen interest lighting up her eyes, "How?"

"She gave him her life." The interest faded from Azami's eye to be replaced by shock and a hint of sadness. Naruto continued. "She didn't have enough chakra, she had been fighting them. So I gave some of mine."

Gaara drew in a sharp breath, that was something he hadn't known. He knew that Chiyo had given her life for his but he had no idea that Naruto had also given something of himself as well. He had never told him.

Azami slumped back in her chair, disappointed. She had hoped, so badly, that this might have been a way to remove the demon soul without harming the vessel. She spared a glance to her students, this was the first time they had dealt with a Jinchuriki. She gave a small smile, they had dealt with it well and she was proud to call them her students. With the smile fading she stood up.

"Thank you that was all I needed to know."

Naruto struggled a bit to sit up properly in the chair, "I'm sorry for what happened. Thank you."

Azami patted his cheek with a ghost of a smile, "Don't fret boy, it wasn't your fault." With that she walked out, Grey following close on her heels. Gaara stood up and walked around his desk to help Naruto to his feet.

"You need some rest. I'll take you back to my place." Gaara said as he took most of Naruto's weight.

"I can help, if you want?"

Gaara looked over at Kuro giving him a long measured look. Kuro was tense, there was so much more to the question then what the words alone meant. After what seemed an eternity Gaara nodded and Kuro relaxed.

"Your help would be appreciated." Gaara said, "That is of course if Kohana doesn't need your support."

Something flashed in Kohana's eyes and some colour came back to her pale face as her spine went stiff.

"I'm fine. I can walk by myself." she said tartly.

A smile ghosted over Kuro's face as he gave her a rib crushing hug and a kiss on the forehead.

"_I_ know you can." he said, "It was Gaara who said that you couldn't."

With a splutter and a wriggle she escaped his grasp and pushed him towards Naruto before shooting Gaara a look and storming out of the room. Kuro walked over the other side of Naruto and grinned.

"It's fun to tease her, she gets so cute when she is mad. It's like a tiny kitten hissing and spitting."

A low chuckle was heard from Naruto as Gaara ducked his head giving a grin of his own.

***

Once Naruto had been put into the spare bed comfortably Gaara walked back out into the lounge room where Kuro and Kohana sat. Kohana sat on one side of the couch with her knees drawn up and her arms wrapped around them. Her eyes were blank as she stared off into space. Kuro sat at her side, his eyes following Gaara's movements as he walked in a settled into the armchair.

The silence seemed to stretch into eternity. Nervously Kohana pulled the tie off the end of her plait and started to unravel her hair. As the blue-black waves spilled over her hands Gaara was filled with the almost overwhelming longing to run his hands through those tresses, just to see if they felt as silky and smooth as they looked. Instead he just rested his hands on the arms of his chair. Finally it was Kuro who broke the silence.

"I'm going to go back to the inn." he said standing up. Kohana gave a start and began unfolding her legs to follow but he pushed her gently back down, "You stay here for a bit, make sure Naruto is okay. I'll let Sensei know."

She blinked a few times, "Yeah, ok."

With a lopsided grin he walked out. After he left the silence descended upon them again. Kohana just fidgeted with the hem of her shirt. She was now alone with Gaara and feeling extremely nervous. Her aborted attempt to talk to him yesterday had left her twisting her insides as she wondered what exactly she would say to him when she saw him again. She glanced over at him from beneath her lashes to find that he was looking at her with a strange look on his face. Her heart pounded harder at the intensity of that gaze. Abruptly she stood up.

"I'm just gonna check on Naruto..." she mumbled before fleeing the room.

Once she reached the spare room where Naruto was resting Kohana took a deep breath to steady herself and slow down her erratic heartbeat. She felt like an idiot, she had the perfect chance to talk to him and she had run away. Slumping against the wall she slid down to the ground pushing the heels of her palms into her forehead. She wanted to regain that easy friendship that she had before, she liked spending time with him. But she wasn't sure how she was going to do that. The sound of the bed moving sent Kohana scrambling back to her feet. She had forgotten that Naruto was in here, and now he was awake and looking at her. She walked over to the bed and rested a hand on his forehead before resting her fingers lightly on his wrist to check his pulse.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to wake you." She said.

Naruto sat up, "It's alright, I wasn't really sleeping. I've got a bit of a headache." he said rubbing the side of his head.

"I can go back to the inn and get something for you if you'd like? I'm sure Sensei's got something."

Naruto shook his head, "Nah, it's all good, it's not that bad." he looked at her, "your Kohana right?"

She nodded. Naruto smiled.

"Gaara told me all about you."

A light blush rose in Kohana's cheeks, "He... he did?" she asked.

A smile spread slowly over his face, "Yep. When I got here yesterday he told me everything that had happened."

"Oh." her shoulders slumped.

"He misses your company."

Kohana just looked at him with surprise. Naruto continued.

"Gaara is one of my closest friends, but sometimes he is a little clueless about his own feelings." a red colour started to slowly rise in Kohana's cheeks at his words. Naruto just gave a wicked grin full of mirth and teasing. "Why don't you just go talk to him. It doesn't have to be anything in particular. You don't even have to talk, there are other ways to... talk."

Kohana just made a choking spluttering sound as her face turned an even brighter shade of red. Naruto just sat there with a bright cheery grin on his face and waved a hand at her.

"Go on now, I need my rest and your preventing it." he heard a few more spluttering sounds as he lay back down and turned away from her. After a moment he heard the door close as she left.

Kohana stepped away from the closed door and pressed her hands against her cheeks feeling the heat that suffused her face. What was it with people wanting to tease her today? She hated being teased.

"Kohana?"

Kohana's head shot up at the sound of Gaara's voice. He stopped just in front of her and looked at the closed doorway.

"Is he alright?"

Her hands fell to her sides as the colour faded.

"He'll be fine."

Gaara shifted a bit in the silence that followed. Finally he took a deep breath.

"I, uh, wanted to apologise. For how I... I acted a couple of days ago..." he trailed off. He felt nervous and tense as he looked at Kohana. The strange expression that she had on her face wasn't helping him calm down. Suddenly she threw her arms around him, making his eyes widen in surprise as she squeezed the breath out of him with her hug.

"You don't have to apologise." she said, her voice muffled by his shirt as her face was buried in his chest. "I'm the one who should apologise, I was the one who told Sensei about you and that makes it my fault she came here. If I hadn't told her then you wouldn't have found out about Kuro and Grey and you wouldn't have gotten upset and... and I don't like you being upset. You don't deserve it..." she trailed off when she realised that she was now just rambling.

Surprised, Gaara just looked down at the top of her head. Slowly, gingerly, he raised the lower half of his arms to gently return the hug, a small smile creeping over his lips.

Kohana released her grip, suddenly shy, and stepped back tucking her hands behind her back, a pink tinge colouring her cheeks.

"Sorry." she muttered.

Gaara just smiled, "Let's go sit back in the lounge room so we don't disturb Naruto."

Kohana just nodded agreement and followed Gaara as he made his way back to the lounge room. Once they were seated Gaara rubbed the back of his neck.

"I was wondering..." he started to say but trailed off. Kohana looked at him expectantly waiting for him to continue. He cleared his throat and started again, "You said Kuro was your partner, what did you mean by that exactly?"

Kohana leaned forward and propped her chin in her hands, "Just that, he is my partner." Gaara just looked confused. She scratched the side of her face lightly, "Hmmm, I've never had to explain this to anybody before, it's just something everyone knows about back home." she leaned back in the couch and chewed her thumbnail, her forehead furrowed in thought as she tried to think of the best way to explain it.

"Hmmm, well back home the demons that roam around are a little more prolific and more accommodating. I think it started long ago when people from up here in the north immigrated to the south, taking with them their knowledge of chakra manipulation with them. Either way they met with the demons and found out they were quite willing to make room on their lands for humans. So the humans settled in whilst the demons watched. In their lesser forms the demons used to wonder around the human villages, helping out, making friends, or even learning some things from us." Kohana grinned, "But the best thing they did was teach our medics better healing techniques, the demons thought this was an honourable pursuit to follow. In return our warriors showed the demons how to better focus their chakra to get better fighting techniques."

All Gaara could do was listen, fascinated, as she kept talking. He kept silent so that he didn't disrupt her train of thought. She continued.

"Of course not all of the demons were happy with the humans on their lands and would attack the villages. Our warriors and other demons managed to fend them off well enough. But one day there was a massive attack on the capital and many people and demons died. The medics and the few demons that knew healing techniques tried to help all of them, but too many of the injured died due to the medics running out of chakra and not enough of the demon healers." She shook her head, "It was so long ago though. No one remembers who the first one was to partner with a demon, but we do know was that the battle was how it all started."

She paused, lost in her history lesson.

"Why?" Gaara asked after a few moments.

Kohana jerked out of her musings, "Oh, well, many reasons actually. It gives the demon the capacity to change to human shape and the human gets a larger chakra reserve and a longer lifespan among other things."

"Can anyone do it?"

She shook her head, "No, only medics can partner with the demons to become healers."

"How is it done?" Gaara was beyond fascinated now, he had never heard of anything like this before. The closest he had ever heard of was the Jinchuriki's. He suppressed a shudder at the thought.

"Well it's... it's... " Kohana waved her hands as she tried to find the right words, "It's like the two souls are 'bonded'. We become intertwined with each other but at the same time retain independence. It's hard to describe."

Gaara just stared at her, his mouth hanging open slightly. Kohana just looked amused at his expression and gave a wry smile.

"Anyways, there is at least one healer in every village and about ten at any one time in the capital. Healers are usually chosen from the medics that come to the capital to train but sometimes they will be chosen from a village directly if talent is shown." she shifted in her seat, "My father took me to the capital when I was ten so that I could see the hospital and the medics and healers that worked there. I wanted to be a medic ever since I could remember. That's when I met Sensei and Grey, she took one look at me and took my father aside to talk to him. When they came back to me they asked me if I wanted to be a healer." She smiled warmly at the memory, "I was so excited." She looked over at Gaara, "You have to understand that since healers live a really long time, new healers are rarely chosen. So for me this was beyond my wildest dreams."

"Is that when you met Kuro?"

"No," she said with a slight shake of her head, causing her hair to ripple, "I didn't meet him until about three years later. During that time I was studying the basics of being a healer as well as my normal education. I didn't have a lot of time to wonder who or what my demon partner would be like."

Gaara settled himself deeper into the armchair, "So how did you meet him?"

"Well, whenever a new healer trainee is declared then the word goes out to all the demons interested that a position is available. The trainee's chakra system is then activated and then the demons travel to meet the trainee."

"Activated?" Gaara interrupted with a confused look.

"Um, well, its sort 'lit up'. It's something that the healers do to the trainees' chakra so that the compatibility of it can be properly matched with the demon. Clashing chakra systems don't function as smoothly as ones that match."

"Oh." was all Gaara could say.

"Anyways, I was thirteen when Kuro finally flew into the capital." She gave a giggle, "He was so flustered and so afraid that I might have already been taken, it was funny. He had heard about me when I had first arrived and he was forbidden by his mother to come to the capital because he wasn't old enough yet." she clamped her hand over her mouth as she giggled harder, "So for three years he had to wait. Jet told me that he drove his entire flock crazy. But the funniest part was that he was chastised by Sensei for making a racket when he arrived. Can you imagine it? Here is Kuro at his natural size, which is big enough for me to ride on, getting told off by Sensei."

The image of a giant oversized crow hanging his head in shame whilst being told off by Azami popped into Gaara's head. Yes he could quite easily imagine it, and the imagery of it made him smile. A comfortable silence fell upon them then.

"I still find it a little hard to believe that it is possible to live so well along side demons." Gaara said after a while.

She cocked her head, "Not really."

"But you grew up with Kuro and I... I grew up with Shukaku."

A sad look crossed her face for a moment. "So how did you meet Naruto? He obviously isn't from Suna."

"No, he isn't. I met him in his home village of Konoha. Funnily enough we were attacking his village."

Kohana's eyebrows shot up, "Oh?"

"I was younger then, and not very... social. We were ordered to attack during the chunin exams. So we did. I ended up fighting against Naruto." he shuddered at the memory of that fight and the wild, crazy bloodlust of Shukaku. "I let the demon take control to wreak havoc." there was a slight gasp from Kohana, " But Naruto stopped the demon. At the end of the battle when we were both exhausted, severely injured and all but passed out, he kept going. He couldn't stand, couldn't even get his arms to pull him along so you want to know what he did?"

Kohana nodded furiously.

"He used his chin to drag himself over to me." Gaara closed his eyes as he remembered, "I asked him what he was doing and he told me that as long as he could move then he would fight to defend his village and everyone in it. I was deeply shocked to say the least, but that day changed my entire life." He opened his eyes again and looked over at Kohana, "It was because of him that I found a way to forgive humanity."

"He must be very precious to you then?" Kohana asked softly.

Gaara nodded, "Yes, he is."


	6. Chapter 6

I'M BACK! Yes I got my comp fixed (sort of) so I am back to writing the fic. So here is the long awaited ch. 6

Much love and enjoy.

Chapter Six

Kohana cracked her eyes open and was immediately reward with a beam of sunlight shining directly across her face. With a moan and some dark grumbling she rolled over in the bed. Hang on, she thought, this isn't my bed in the inn. She shot awake instantly and sat up. Rubbing the sleep from her eyes she looked around the room to try and identify where she was. As everything came into focus she found that she recognised the room.

It was Gaaras.

How did she end up in here though? Last thing she remembered was Gaara talking about a student he once had whilst she was sitting on the couch. She must've have fallen asleep. They had stayed up late whilst Kohana had talked about her childhood and her training and Gaara had talked about his more happier memories. She stretched out her arms, hearing joints pop in a satisfying way, then threw back the blanket. Swinging her feet out she stood up and walked out the door. As soon as she hit the hallway a delicious scent hit her nose, making her stomach rumbled loudly. Following her nose she padded her way to the kitchen. Gaara stepped out of the kitchen just as Kohana was about to enter and they almost collided with each other.

"Sorry." Kohana said with a sleepy, sheepish grin, "I wasn't really paying attention to what was in front of me."

"It's alright; I was coming to wake you. These... these are for you." Gaara offered her the plate that he had in his hands. Sitting on top was a pile of pancakes, the source of the delicious smell that had drawn her to the kitchen, topped with a drizzling of honey. Gleefully Kohana took the plate with a grin and took a deep sniff.

"Thank you." she said.

They heard footsteps and a zombie-walking Naruto with mussed blond hair and half closed eyes shuffled over to them, his own nose taking a deep sniff of Kohana's pancakes. She moved her plate out of reach as Naruto tried to take the top one off the stack.

"Mine." she said in a grumpy little voice. Naruto's bottom lip stuck out in a pout as he was denied Kohana's pancakes. Gaara just grabbed his shoulders and steered him into the kitchen where another plate with a stack of pancakes waited.

"These ones are yours." he said, amused.

Naruto's pout disappeared to be replaced with a grin as he sat down on the stool that was in front of the kitchen bench where his pancakes sat and immediately started to gobble them down. Kohana walked in and sat on the stool on the opposite of the bench and started to consume her own breakfast. When he was done Naruto gave a loud burp and stretched his arms over his head, eyeing off the last of Kohana's pancakes as she finished up. Deliberately she stuffed the last bite of her pancake into her mouth, leaving nothing for Naruto to scavenge off her plate.

"Those were fantastic," Kohana said giving her own arms and back another stretch, "did you make those yourself?"

Gaara nodded as he rested a mug of tea on the bench and cleared away their plates, "Yes. Temari used to do all the cooking before she moved out. She taught me how to make a few things so that I could eat 'real food' as she put it."

"Did you sleep here last night?" Naruto suddenly asked Kohana.

"Apparently so. I woke up in Gaara's bed." Naruto's eyebrows shot up, "Alone." Kohana finished, shooting Naruto a quick glare.

"Then where did you sleep?" Naruto asked Gaara, twisting around to look at him.

Gaara picked up the mug that he had rested on the bench and took a sip of the drink, "I slept in Kankuro's bed. He is away on a mission at the moment so I took advantage of that."

Naruto wrinkled his nose, "Kankuro's room smells funny."

Gaara finished off his drink and placed his mug in the sink, "I doubt yours smells any better." he said.

A snort of laughter escaped from Kohana. Naruto turned to her.

"And I suppose _your _room smells like roses?" he asked, a grin hanging from the corner of his mouth.

She gave a wide smug grin of her own, "Lavender actually, I keep a potted plant of it in my room back home."

Naruto just scratched the top of his head, "Damn." he muttered, "I can't really keep any plants, I always forget to water them so they end up dying."

Kohana giggled again as a knock sound on the door. Gaara left the kitchen to find out who it was. A few moments later he returned, Kuro in tow. The crow demon gave a grin at the sleep mussed pair sitting on the stools as they gave him a wave of greeting.

"I have come to collect Kohana. Sensei wants to talk to you." He said.

Kohana gave a grimace as she looked down at the rumpled clothes that she was wearing yesterday, "Hmm, I should probably get dressed whilst I'm there as well." she jumped off the stool, "Well, thank you for breakfast. I'll drop by later." She gave the two boys a cheery wave before hooking her arm through Kuro's.

"Good bye." Gaara said.

"See ya." Naruto added, resting his cheek in his hand and giving an absent wave with his other hand.

Back at the inn Kohana quickly showered and changed before going downstairs to the dining room to sit with Azami who was finishing up her own breakfast with Grey. Patiently she waited for her Sensei to finish. A few minutes later Azami put down her cutlery and pushed her plate away, turning her attention to Kohana and Kuro.

"I want to stay here for a few days." She said resting her chin atop her folded hands, "I want to visit their hospital and learn whatever new techniques they might have developed. The fact that someone had managed to come up with a technique to restore life to the dead leaves me curious as to what else they may have discovered. Would this be alright for you two?"

Kohana and Kuro looked at each other for a moment before nodding.

"I don't mind staying for a bit longer Sensei." Kohana said.

"It would give Jet a few more days to recover from the frantic flight up here." Kuro added.

Azami smiled, "Excellent. Another thing, Kohana I need to see the Kazekage and I have no wish to battle my way through his PA again just to get an appointment to see him."

Grey's shoulders started to shake as he silently laughed whilst consuming his large plate of bacon and sausages. Azami just rolled her eyes and shot a quick glare at him.

"When could you get me in?" she asked Kohana.

"Well we could go now if you want." Kohana said with a slight shrug of her shoulders.

Azami gave a little clap, "Perfect. Grey hurry up and finish your food."

Like the wolf he was Grey polished off his plate at top speed. When he was finished he licked his lips.

"I was trying to eat politely." He said.

"Thank you." Azami said with a small smile as she stood up, "Well let's go."

With a scraping of chairs they all stood up and left the dining room of the inn. Ten minutes later Kohana was knocking on the front door of Gaara's house. Gaara opened the door and waved them inside and into the lounge room. Naruto was sprawled out on the floor with a book, his hair still wet from the shower he had. Azami and Grey settled on the couch whilst Kohana and Kuro settled themselves on the floor next to Naruto whom had closed his book when they walked in. Kohana flashed a grin at Gaara as he sat down in his usual armchair and gave an inquiring look at Azami and Grey.

"Sensei didn't want to have to go through your PA to see you." Kohana said.

Gaara massaged the bridge of his nose as Naruto sat up.

"You have a PA?" Naruto asked, surprised.

"Yes." Gaara's voice was slightly muffled from his hand, "Not by my choice, mind you. She was assigned to me by the council. I make special effort to avoid her when I can." He couldn't keep the note of exasperation and disgust from his voice.

The three on the floor started to chuckle. Azami just threw them all a dirty look before turning to Gaara.

"I just wanted your permission to study some of the healing techniques that are employed in your hospital and by your medical ninja's."

A thoughtful look crossed his face as he considered the request.

"The methods used by the normal doctors can be easily studied at the medical school." he replied after a moment, "I believe they will be happy to show you anything you want, just be prepared for them to ask the same of you. As for the chakra techniques used by our medical shinobi, that is a different matter." He gave a slight frown, "That will have to be put forth to the council for consideration." He spread his hands in apology, "You have to understand that we shinobi have techniques that are unique to our village and as such we guard those closely. If another village would get hold of any of those techniques they can be turned against us."

Azami inclined her head, "I understand. Would it help my case if I offered to teach some of the techniques that we have at home?"

"It might. I will let them know of your offer."

"Thank you." Azami said as she stood up, "Come now Kohana, the holiday is over it's time to go back to your studies. You can come with me and learn what I learn."

Kohana gave a groan as she climbed to her feet. Grey stood up and hauled Kuro bodily to his feet by grabbing the back of his shirt and lifting.

"You too crow." he said, "Your fighting form as a human is still sloppy. You need more training."

Kuro's shoulders slumped but he stayed standing. Naruto's attention perked up at the word 'training'.

"You train?" he asked the demons.

Both Grey and Kuro nodded.

"It is so that we can protect our partner in any situation as best as possible." Grey said as he turned to Gaara, "Speaking of which, do you have a training field we can use?"

Gaara nodded and Naruto chirped up, "I can show them!" He looked over at Gaara for confirmation. Gaara gave another nod.

"That would be helpful considering I have to go into the office."

With a wide sunny smile Naruto scrambled to his feet, "Hang on a minute." And with that he scrabbled off to the spare room. Ten seconds later he returned, fastening a pouch to his right thigh. "Ok, let's go" he said grabbing Kuro by arm and dragging him out the front door. Grey followed, an amused expression on his face. Kohana watched them go with a little giggle before Azami hooked her by the arm.

"Come along, o' student of mine. We have our own work to do."

Kohana gave a grimace, "Fine."

The side of Azami's mouth twitched up in a smile, "If you could give us directions to the medical school?"

After obtaining directions the two women left the house. Twenty minutes and a wrong turn later they arrived at a two storey building that, like the rest of the village, was the colour of sand. A sign above the door announced that they had reached their destination.

"It's not very big." Kohana commented looking up at it.

"Likely they do most of their teaching at the hospital, like we do at home." Azami replied walking forward.

She entered the building with Kohana behind her. Inside was a spacious room with a receptionist at one end. They made their way across the floor and over to the woman on duty. She looked up from the book she was reading and gave them both a warm smile.

"How can I help you? Are you looking to enrol?"

They shook their heads and Azami explained what she wanted. The receptionist pursed her lips in thought.

"Hmmm, most of the classes are at the hospital today." she clicked her fingers, "But Sensei Soji is in his office at the moment. He doesn't have a class until later this afternoon, so he should be free to talk. Just go up the stairs and it's the last door on the right."

"Thank you." Azami said.

Minutes later they were knocking on the dark wood door.

"Come in." A deep rich voice said.

Opening the door Azami stepped in followed by Kohana. Sensei Soji looked up from his desk where he was working. His hair was dark brown and his eyes were a dark green-brown with skin that was dark golden tan colour. His eyebrows shot up a bit at the sight of the two women.

"How can I help you?" He asked gesturing to the seats in front of his desk.

They sat down as Azami introduced herself and her student and explained what she was after. Soji listened to her with interest, absently nodding his head every so often.

"Well," he said when she had finished, "I'll be happy to let you two sit in with my class this afternoon and observe if you wish." he gave a wide smile, "I would be curious to hear how our teaching methods might differ."

"Oh, I imagine they wouldn't differ that much, especially the basics." Azami replied with a wave of her hand.

As he and Azami launched into a discussion about training techniques Kohana let her mind wonder. This wasn't exactly her idea of fun so she just let her thoughts drift about aimlessly. But inevitably her thoughts wandered to Gaara and what he was doing at that moment. She thought about breakfast that morning and the fact that he made her breakfast. A smile crept over her face, it may have only just been pancakes but she thought the gesture extremely sweet. Her smile started to grow silly as she thought about what she could do with pancakes, honey and a very naked Gaara.

A tap on her shoulder bought Kohana out of thoughts with a start. She looked Azami with wide-eyed surprise. Both Azami and Soji were looking at her expressions of deep amusement.

"You really should've have seen your face." Azami said to her student, "it looked like you were thinking some happy thoughts."

"No doubt she was thinking of the same thing that most of the young women in this village think of, our young Kazekage Gaara." Soji added.

Kohana flushed a bright hot red and sunk down into her chair a little bit as Sensei Soji hit the nail on the head. He looked like he was suppressing a laugh. Azami had no such control and was openly laughing at her students' embarrassment. Kohana sunk a little further and struggled to get her blush under control as Azami calmed down enough to continue talking to Soji. This time Kohana paid attention to what they were saying.

She hated to get teased and she was damned if she was going to let Sensei get another opportunity to do so. Even if it did mean having to listen to this conversation.

***

Naruto watched in interest as the two demons did stretches to warm up their bodies. Once they had finished Grey gave a grin and crouched down. With slow deliberate steps he started to circle around Kuro. Kuro followed his movements carefully his body ready to move at the slightest action.

Suddenly Grey lunged at him, charging right for him. With one smooth movement Kuro jumped up and over allowing Grey to pass underneath. Grey instantly slid to a stop and in one quick movement turned and leapt up landing right on top of Kuro. They grappled with each other for a few moments before Kuro kicked Grey off, sending him sprawling on the sandy ground. He bought his foot up in time to catch Kuro as he was about to slam him, and toss him over his head before jumping back to his feet. Kuro hit the ground with his hands and rolled forward coming up to his feet only to get tackled from behind by Grey.

With an 'oof' Kuro went down with Grey on his back pinning him down. With some effort Kuro managed to get his feet underneath himself and with a grunt pushed up, letting Grey fall forward over his shoulder and to the ground. Quickly he stood up and jumped back to put some distance between them and crouched into a defensive posture, waiting for Grey to make the next move.

Grey got to his feet in one smooth move and gave a toothy grin at Kuro, looking in that moment every inch the wolf he was. Again, he suddenly lunged at Kuro. Like the first time, Kuro again jumped up, but Grey twisted and grabbed one of his feet bringing him sharply back to the ground. Shaking his head a bit Kuro tucked his arms in and rolled, making it difficult for Grey to keep a hold. As soon as he was free he got to his feet and leaped for Grey. But the Grey reacted quickly and simply ducked, letting Kuro go overhead. But something flashed from Kuro's hand as he passed over and imbedded itself into Grey's back, causing a slight quiet hiss.

Kuro landed on his hands and rolled over his shoulder to absorb the impact before springing to his feet and grinning at Grey.

"Gotcha." he said triumphantly.

Grey just gave a grunt as he reached over his shoulder and pulled the object out of his flesh. The wound healed as soon as the thing was removed.

Naruto, meanwhile, had watched the entire thing from the sidelines with open-mouthed fascination. They were so _fast_. The entire fight hadn't even lasted ten minutes. The glint of metal in Grey's hand drew his attention.

"What is that?" he asked pointing at Grey's hand.

Grey looked over at Naruto, a bit surprised, he had forgotten the Jinchuriki was there. With a flick of his wrist the object imbedded itself in the post next to Naruto. Naruto yanked it out and examined it. It was metal, about the length of his first finger and shaped like the petal of a daisy. Turning it over in his hands he could see that the entire edge was sharpened to razor sharpness. His eyebrows lifted, he had never seen any weapon like this before.

"Can I keep it?" He asked.

Grey pulled off his shirt and poked a finger through the hole that was now in the shoulder.

"Tell you what," he said as he wiggled the finger in the hole, seeing just how big it was, "why don't you have a match with Kuro. You win, you get to keep it."

"And if I lose?" Naruto asked, a little eagerly.

Grey gave a shrug, "You don't keep it. You give it back to Kuro."

"Done!" Naruto said, "What are the rules?"

Kuro walked over to Naruto pulling off his own shirt with a grin, "Anything goes, first to draw blood wins."

He dropped his shirt onto the ground next to the post. Naruto noticed that Kuro had a belt around his hips with more of the petal-shaped blades tucked into individual slots. Grey pulled a brief face as he joined them at the post. He should have thought to take his shirt off before the match, Azami always got quite irate whenever he ripped or cut his clothes during training. Which was fair because she was the one who did all the repairing when they were on the road. He had offered to repair a shirt of his once only to get a glare and some dark muttering about how he would only end up with more rips and tears and that mere men shouldn't be trusted with such a delicate and precise operation. He flopped himself down on the ground in the meagre shade that the post offered and shrugged his shirt back on as Naruto and Kuro moved out onto the training field.

"Begin." Grey said.

Naruto began by throwing three shuriken straight off. Quickly, and with a bit of surprise at Naruto's reflexes, Kuro twisted to the side slapping the stars away from him. Naruto followed up his initial attack by charging at the crow and swiping at him with a kunai. Kuro caught his hand and twisted it behind his back to avoid the punch that Naruto was aiming with his other fist. Naruto twisted himself out of Kuro's hold and was put on the defensive blocking and redirecting Kuro's attacks. Finally he dropped to the ground to deliver a ground sweeping kick, sending Kuro to the ground.

Grey just grinned. He could see that Kuro was a little off balance now that he was fighting with a real human warrior. One who's fighting style differed greatly from any of the humans back at home.

Naruto's hands moved as he quickly formed the signs for his shadow clone jutsu. Kuro got a look of disgust as four more Naruto's appeared and all five charged him. He crossed his arms in front of him and a shield of blue-black chakra snapped up around him. All five Naruto's slammed into it, four of them disappearing in puffs of clouds. The chakra shield dissolved as Naruto picked himself up off the ground, that was the last thing he was expecting.

"That's cheating." he said feebly, a little dazed from his collision.

Kuro just gave him a look, "and five against one isn't?"

"Anything goes."

"Exactly." Kuro gave a grin, "shall we continue?"

Naruto held up his kunai and gave a grin of his own that mirrored Kuro's.

"Let's go."

This time Naruto took a defensive crouch and waited for Kuro to make a move. Kuro started to step backwards putting distance between himself and Naruto. When he was several metres away he stopped. Naruto narrowed his eyes suspiciously. Suddenly Kuro burst into a sprint straight for him. At about three metres in front of Naruto he leapt into the air and straight over the top of Naruto, three glints of metal showed that he was pulling the same trick that he had done to Grey. The petal blades all hit Naruto only to have him disappear in a puff of smoke leaving a log with the blades imbedded in it.

On the sidelines Grey burst out with laughter.

Kuro landed, rolled and was back on his feet all in one smooth movement. He walked over and kicked the log, twisting his torso to the side as a shuriken whizzed past. In a childish gesture Kuro poked his tongue out at Naruto.

"Missed." he taunted.

Naruto pointed to the log, "You missed first."

Kuro's only response was to throw one of his petal blades which Naruto deflected using a kunai. Kuro charged at him and punched. Naruto blocked and countered with a punch of his own. They continued to trade blows, blocking and deflecting each others moves.

Grey studied both the boys as they fought and he had to admit that the human was good. Naruto had reflexes and stamina that spoke of long hours training and years of experience, not just the influence of the demon housed within. Whilst Kuro had training and the added benefit of being a demon, he had no real experience in proper battle. This made for an interesting match between to two.

They pulled apart for a moment, each one breathing a little heavier. Naruto's hands flew as he performed a jutsu. Suddenly, instead of five, there was at least a hundred Naruto's. Kuro gave a curse as he quickly called up his chakra shield. Again the Naruto's all slammed into it, the clones disappearing into puffs. Once they were gone Kuro was left with just one Naruto standing in front of him. Kuro gave grin, so he had learnt not to throw his actual self into the shield. He allowed the shield to dissolve, but instead of fading it collected around his right arm to form a vague wing shape. Throwing his arm out in front of him, the chakra 'feathers' extended rapidly to slice through Naruto's arm.

Only to have him disappear in a puff leaving a surprised Kuro to whip around a fraction too late. The shuriken whizzed past, scoring a cut on his cheek as he bought his arm up to deflect it.

"Gotcha!" Naruto yelled triumphantly.

Grey stood up and walked over to the pair.

"Very well done." He said holding out the petal blade. Naruto opened his hand as Grey dropped it in.

Kuro wiped off the blood off his cheek with the back of his hand, the cut already healed, before running his hand through his hair.

"That was tough." He suddenly grinned, "but fun. We have to do that again sometime."

"Defiantly."

A slow clapping drew their attention to the side of the training field. A woman was walking over to them, with blue eyes and her short blonde hair tied up into four bunches. Naruto gave a wave.

"Hi Temari."

Temari gave a wave as she up to them. "Hello Naruto."

"Did you see the fight?" Naruto asked.

"I caught the last of it, very impressive. But I came here because I wanted you to do me a favour."

Naruto gave a shrug, "Sure."

Temari pulled a folded piece of paper from her pouch, "Could you give this to Shikamaru when you get home?"

"Yeah, sure." Naruto said as he took the letter, turning it over as he peered at it, curious. Temari wasn't really the letter giving type. "What's it about?"

Temari went a light shade of pink, "Nothing really."

Naruto gave her a suspicious look. Kuro looked at her, curious despite himself. Temari finally threw up her hands.

"Oh fine, he will tell you anyway so you might as well know. I'm pregnant."

A slow grin crossed over Naruto's face, "And Shikamaru is..."

"Of course." Temari said rolling her eyes.

Naruto grabbed her in a bone breaking hug, "Congratulations! We have to celebrate!"

"Erk, no, I would rather you didn't..." Temari said as the breath was all but squeezed out of her by Naruto. But Naruto wasn't listening to her.

"We'll all go out, you, me, Gaara, Kankuro, even Kuro and Kohana and Grey and Azami." Naruto babbled.

"Yeah!" Kuro said enthusiastically. Temari shot him a look.

"Your not helping." she said as she detangled from Naruto.

"Let's go find Kankuro and Gaara and tell them." Kuro said, really excited now.

"Yeah let's go now!" Naruto took off over the fields with Kuro following close behind.

"Wait! No!" Temari yelled taking off after them.

Grey gave a shake of his head but he was smiling. He set off on a slow leisurely walk back to the inn to wait for Azami collecting Kuro's forgotten shirt as he left.


	7. Chapter 7

Here it is, the next chapter. Enjoy.

Chapter Seven

It was late at night as the revellers spilled out of the bar and onto the street with much giggling and stumbling. Four of the party goers were blind rotten drunk and unsteady on their feet whilst the other two were still sober and guiding the other four to stop them from falling over their own feet. Kankuro, Naruto, Kohana and Kuro were all laughing and talking at the tops of their lungs as they stumbled along. Temari had a hold of Kankuro and Naruto whilst Gaara was supporting Kohana and Kuro. With a look of suffering Gaara looked over at his sister.

"Could you take those two home?"

Temari gave a wry smile, "Yes, your house is on the way to mine so I'm heading that way anyway."

"Thank you. I will take these two back to the inn." Gaara grabbed the collar of Kuro's shirt before he walked into a lamp post. As Temari prodded her two in the right direction Gaara heard Naruto start up a drunken song, of which Kankuro took up enthusiastically. He gave a shake of his head, he really hoped that they would pass out before he got home.

"Come on, let's get you two back to the inn." he said putting his hand under Kohana's elbow to steady her as she started to veer towards the wall.

Normally the walk would have only taken about five minutes, but with these two in their current state that five minute walk instead took about twenty minutes. Gaara had to keep cajoling, and at times dragging, them in the right direction, but eventually the inn came into sight. As they approach a shadow detached itself from the front door and came towards them. The shadow resolved itself to be Grey.

"Here I'll take this one." he said as he grabbed Kuro by the back of the collar and frog marched him inside.

Gaara put his arm around Kohana to guide her inside and steady her. But before they went inside Kohana stopped, digging her heels in.

"Wait a mini." she said, a little slurred.

Gaara patiently stopped. Kohana turned and rested her palms on his chest and looked up at Gaara.

"You are weally, weally hot." she said. Gaara just looked at her, she continued, "and I've been wantin' to do this for a long time..." suddenly she leaned up and planted her lips on his.

Gaara's heart started to pound wildly and his eyes widened for a moment before they slid shut and he responded instinctively to the kiss, his hand sliding from her shoulder to the back of her head.

A few moments later common sense smacked Gaara around the head and he gently pulled away, not without regret.

"You need to go to bed. Your drunk." he said gently.

She held up one hand, her thumb and forefinger held about a centimetre apart, "Just a little bit." she responded with a grin, "Want to come to bed with me?"

Gaara almost choked as his heart leapt into his throat, "I can't." he managed to choke out before gritting his teeth. That was the last thing in the world that he wanted to say at that moment, as it was he was nearly undone by her pout. Remember she is intoxicated, he thought to himself, her inhibitions are lowered and she may regret it in the morning.

"Can I at least get a good night kiss?" She said still pouting as she slid her arms around his neck.

Gritting his teeth and mentally steeling himself Gaara gently unwrapped her arms from his neck and, on an impulse, gave her a kiss on the forehead.

"How about in the morning?" He said.

She brightened a bit, "Ok." She suddenly wrapped her arms around him in a hug before releasing him and walking unsteadily in the door, almost running into Grey whom had come back out to see what was taking so long. He caught Kohana and swept her up into his arms.

"Tch, the things I do." He looked over at Gaara, "Are you alright? You look a bit strange."

"I'm fine." Gaara said sounding a bit strained, "I'm tired, I've gotta get home. Good night." he turned and walked away. When he was out of sight of the inn he broke into a run and didn't stop until he reached home. Letting himself in he was relieved to find that both Naruto and Kankuro were securely in bed. Locking the front door behind him he went to his own bedroom where he got undressed and climbed beneath his covers, his mind churning over what had just happened. He touched his lips, oh how badly he wanted to race back to the inn and take up Kohana's offer. He closed his eyes firmly; he would worry about it in the morning. When he finally got to sleep his dreams were filled with dark blue eyes filled with lust and long silky blue-black hair running through his fingers.

***

"Wakey, wakey!" a bright cheery voice pierced Kohana's slumber, bringing her back to the world of the living and her hung-over body. She gave a groan into her pillow as a sharp headache stabbed at her temple. She heard a similar moan from Kuro's bed on the other side of the room followed by his muffled "go 'way".

"Come on, you guys are the one who requested the wake up call." Azami's voice pierced her skull, each syllable making her headache worse. With another groan Kohana threw back her covers and rolled off her bed to the floor where she lay with her pounding head against the carpet. She heard Kuro give a strangled hiss as Azami ripped his covers off him. Finally she cracked her eyes open and squinted, groping around the drawers she pulled out the first thing that her hands laid upon and dragged herself into the tiny bathroom to try and drown her headache in the shower.

Twenty minutes later she emerged feeling a tiny bit better. Her hair was unbound and hanging down her back so that it could dry in the hot desert sun. As soon as she stepped out Kuro walked in, not even bothering to close the door. Kohana sat down on her bed and gulped down the glass of water that Azami had left for her. Why, oh why did she agree to go out drinking? She hated hangovers, hell; she hated to get drunk in general. She always found that after her seventh or eighth drink her memory got fuzzy. She had no idea how Kuro and herself managed to make it back to the inn last night. Although she did remember dreaming about Gaara last night. Suddenly Kuro walked past, stark naked and dripping wet. He got to his drawer and grabbed the first pair of pants he saw and put them on before turning to Kohana.

"Let's go and get this over with so that I can go back to bed." he mumbled quietly.

Kohana nodded as she stood up, sending a stab of pain through her head. They left the room and walked downstairs and out the front. Both of them winced when they were hit with the bright sunlight of the morning. Kohana grabbed Kuro's arm before he could retreat back inside and dragged him off the Gaara's house. Soon they were knocking on the front door only to have it opened by a disgustingly cheery Naruto. They quickly entered and headed for the lounge room where Kuro dropped to the ground and curled up on the floor whilst Kohana curled herself up on the couch. Naruto walked in behind them with a grin.

"And how are you two this morning?"

Kuro just curled up tighter as Kohana gave a wince.

"Not so loud." She groaned, "My head hurts."

"Hmm, give me a sec." Naruto got up and left.

Kohana was just starting to drift into a doze when Naruto returned. A glass of something purple and smelling very strangely was shoved under nose.

"Here, drink this. It will make you feel better."

Kohana took the glass, suppressing an urge to gag at the smell and gulped it down in a few large swallows.

"Ug, it tastes disgusting." Kohana said, putting the empty glass on the coffee table.

"No it doesn't," Kuro said setting his glass next to hers, "That tastes great, what is it?"

"Just something that will help with the hangover." Naruto replied.

"You would like something that tastes like worms." Kohana muttered to Kuro. However, she did admit that the potion was working. She was feeling better and her headache had reduced itself to dull ache that could be ignored. Even Kuro had uncurled himself and was now sitting up.

"So did you have fun last night?" Naruto asked with a grin.

"Yeah, at the beginning of the night." Kohana replied, "I can't remember the rest. I still have no clue how we got back to the inn."

"I escorted you and Kuro back to the inn last night after we left the bar." Gaara said from the doorway, his wet hair showing that he had just gotten out of the shower, "I doubted your ability to reach the inn safely by yourselves."

"Pfft, we would have been fine." Kuro said with a wave of his hand.

Gaara crossed his arms and gave a smug smile, "You almost walked into at least seven different lamp posts, you fell into the gutter twice and even tripped over your own feet."

Kuro absently scratched at his bare chest, "Yeah, we would have been fine."

Gaara just shook his head before turning to Kohana, "You really don't have any memory of the end of last night?"

Kohana shook her head, "None what so ever." A horrible thought occurred to her, "I didn't say or do anything stupid, did I?" she said slowly, covering her face afraid of what the answer might be. The last thing she wanted was to be teased for any stupid stunt she might have done. After a moment she realised that no answer was forthcoming. She slid her hands down slowly and peered at Gaara, only to find that he was blushing. Oh god, what had she done!

"Oh no, don't tell me I tried to do a strip dance at the bar again." She said horrified.

Gaara just turned a brighter shade of red whilst Naruto and Kuro burst out laughing.

"What strip dance?" Kankuro said walking in, "Did I miss a strip dance?" his voice had a whine.

"No, you didn't miss any strip dance." Naruto said still laughing, "But what do you mean by 'again'?"

Kohana hid her face back in her hands. Her bloody mouth again, would she ever learn? Kuro just laughed harder.

"I remember that! It was a birthday party, Kohana got absolutely blind drunk and attempted to do a strip dance on the bar. She would have done it too if the bouncers hadn't stopped her." Kuro ducked the cushion that was thrown at him and continued to laugh at the very red faced Kohana.

"Leave me alone, I don't remember it so for all I know you guys could've just told me that for a laugh." She gave a huff as she crossed her arms. Gaara had a peculiar look on his face as he remained very silent.

She didn't remember! Gaara didn't know if that was a bad thing or a good thing, all he knew was that he had done the right thing by turning down her invitation last night. He didn't think he wanted to deal with the awkwardness that would have resulted if she had woken up with him in her bed and no memory of what happened. He wondered if he should tell her the truth?

"Urg! Tell me, what did I do last night? I know I did something! You have a really weird look on your face." Kohana was looking right at him now with the kind of look that said she just wanted to get it out of the way.

"It was nothing." Gaara mumbled, he sure as hell wasn't going to say anything with Kankuro in the room. He would never hear the end of it.

Kohana just gave a groan, "Now I know it's something really bad."

"Well, too bad I can't stick around and find out but I've got to get back home." Naruto said as he stood up.

Kohana jumped up and gave him a hug, "It was good meeting you, I hope you have a safe trip home." she released him and stepped back, "Oh by the way do have the recipe for that hangover drink?"

Naruto scratched his head, "Er, no, a friend of mine back home makes it. I just always carry some with me, just in case."

"Oh." Her shoulders slumped a bit.

"You could always come to Konoha and visit me." Naruto suggested with a cheeky grin, "You could get the recipe then."

Kohana's face brightened, "Thanks, I might do that."

Kuro gave a cheeky grin before giving Naruto a bone crushing hug.

"Urk! Not so hard." Naruto wheezed out. Kuro released him and ruffled the hair on top of his head.

"See ya around." he said.

"Well if everyone else is giving you hugs, then who am I to argue." Kankuro said as he wrapped his arms around Naruto in a hug that lifted him off the ground. Gaara stepped forward when Naruto was released by his brother. Naruto held up his hand.

"Wait, let me just get some air back into my brain before you squeeze it out of me again."

Gaara just laughed as he clapped his hand on Naruto's shoulder and gave a squeeze.

"Don't worry, I won't be hugging you. Have a safe trip my friend."

Naruto grinned, "Thanks." He picked his pack up from the floor where it had been resting next to the couch, "Well I best be off. See you later."

They all followed him to the front door and waved as he went off down the street. When he was out of sight Kohana turned to the brothers.

"Well, Naruto's hangover cure has worked wonders and I am starving so I am going to go back to the inn and get some breakfast before I expire of hunger."

"Do you mind if I join you?" Gaara asked, "I need to see Azami."

Kohana just gave a shrug, "Sure. She's meeting us at in the dining room at the inn so you can catch her there."

Gaara held out a hand in front of him, "Lead the way then." Kankuro disappeared back into the house muttering something about leftover Chinese for breakfast.

Arriving at the inn Kohana and Kuro made a beeline straight for the dining room and the food buffet table that was laid out for breakfast for the guests, leaving Gaara to look for Azami. With a quick scan of the room he found Azami and Grey sitting at a table over next to the window. He wove his way through the mostly empty tables to come up next to theirs.

"Why, hello Kazekage." Azami said waving her had towards an empty seat, "Would you care to join us?"

"Thank you." Gaara replied as he sat down in the seat, "I've actually come to tell you that the council has made a decision regarding your request."

"Yes?" Azami leaned forward with interest.

"They have denied it."

"Oh. That's a pity."

"I'm sorry."

Azami waved her hand and gave smile, "It's alright. I appreciate you asking for me." She gave Grey a poke in the ribs, "Slow down or you'll choke."

Grey swallowed his mouthful and started to eat a little more slowly. Kohana and Kuro arrived with plates laden with food and sat down at the table.

"Well that's all I needed to tell you so I'll leave you too your breakfast."

"What was it?" Kohana asked?

"The council denied my request to study their medical chakra techniques." Azami replied.

"Bummer." Kohana jumped up from her seat and hooked her arm through Gaaras as he got up, "Wait a mini, I want to ask you something."

Curious, Gaara allowed himself to be steered a couple of metres away from the table. Abruptly they stopped and Kohana swung around to look at him.

"I wanna know what it was that I did last night?" She asked.

He went red and rubbed the back of his neck, "I, uh, it was nothing. Really."

Kohana just gave a look that said that she didn't believe him. He gave a sigh.

"Fine. You... you kissed me." he stuttered out, still blushing, "Then... then you asked me to... to spend the... the night with... with you." Oh no, he thought, what am I doing? His eyes were staring at the floor now, too embarrassed to meet her eyes.

Relief spread through Kohana.

"Oh thank goodness. It's not that bad."

Gaaras' head snapped up to look at her, surprised written all over his face. She raised an eyebrow with amusement.

"Please, there are much worse things I could have done then wake up next to you." She screwed her face up, "I hate the fact that I can't remember. Was it at least a good kiss?"

Gaaras eyes just widened. She started to giggle at his expression as his blush returned full force.

"I'm going to go back to my breakfast. I'll let you go now." she said with a grin.

Muttering something Gaara fled the room. Kohana gave another small giggle before returning back to the table. As she sat down Kuro looked over at her.

"What was that?" he asked.

"I found out what I did last night." she replied.

"What did you do?" Grey paused in his food inhalation for a moment, "That poor boy practically ran away from the inn last night."

Kohana just gave a wave of her hand, "Oh nothing bad, I kissed him then propositioned him for sex."

Kuro choked on his food as he started to laugh, "That would explain why he fled just now."

Azami just shook her head as Grey continued eating, silently laughing.

"Hurry up and finish your food Kohana. We don't want to miss Soji's class." She looked at the two demons, "you two are free to do what you want today."

Grey gave an evil glance at Kuro, "You got beaten by a human yesterday."

"Oh no, please no." Kuro whined.

"More training. This time we are going to find some of these ninja's for you to spar against. I'm sure we can find some willing volunteers."

"You're mean."

"Mean is the average and therefore should be expected." Grey replied calmly.

Kuro could only gaped and make a few strangled sounds as he struggled to form a comeback. In the end he gave up and continued his breakfast with a sulk. Kohana laughed silently as she finished her meal.

***

Laying on her bed in her room at the inn Kohana stretched out the fingers of her right hand with a grimace. All she had done all day was write notes down for Azami on a clipboard as they followed Sensei Soji around the hospital. The only thing she had to show for it was a sore hand, sore feet, and a dull headache. Looking over at Kuro she could see that his day wasn't any better. He was laying on his stomach on the bed with his eyes closed, exhaustion written all over his body. Apparently word had gotten out about the strangers whom sparred with such speed and grace on the training fields yesterday and every ninja with spare time came to watch them. As Grey said, they had plenty of volunteers for sparring against. Kuro had spent his day fighting against person after person, usually winning due to his demonic nature. Grey had even gone up against a couple.

Kohana rolled off her bed and walked over to sit on the edge of Kuros' bed. He opened his eyes but closed them again when he sensed chakra building up in her hands. She put her hands on his back and let the chakra flow throughout his body, searching out every sore muscle and ache and soothing it all out in a kind of deep tissue massage. Kuro sighed with relief and relaxed, this one of the perks of being a partner to a Healer, his health and wellbeing was always top priority.

"Kuro, I need advice." she said quietly.

Kuro raised an eyebrow and made an 'hmm' sound to show that he was listening.

"I've been thinking about what Gaara told me about what I did last night." She sighed and shifted her hands to a new spot on his back, "So he obviously knows I like him. I want to kiss him, whilst I'm sober, but I'm not sure if he likes me like that. What should I do?"

Kuro sat up and shifted around on the bed to look at her.

"Kohana, I don't think you have to worry too much." he gave a chuckle, "I can tell you with a high degree of certainty that Gaara would probably like nothing more than to get another kiss from you."

Kohanas' expression lightened. Kuro gave a smile but inside he was worried. He knew that Kohana would end up hurt, but he also knew that this was the kind of lesson that Kohana had to learn herself. He remembered when Kohana was fifteen Azami had taken him aside and told him that one day something like this would happen. And if it did, he shouldn't stop it, but just let it run its course. All he could do was to be there for her when she needed him. He still remembered the words that Azami had told him.

_"We Healers and our Partners are different Kuro." She had a sad look on her face, "Healers live on the edge of humanity, never quite part of it anymore. We measure our lives differently. Kohana doesn't quite grasp this concept yet, she is still young. Unfortunately this is a lesson that she will have to learn for herself because no matter how many times you tell her she won't fully grasp it until she has experienced it. She is going to lose all her human constants and you will need to be there for her because you will be the only thing that will remain." She had given a laugh. "Heh, to serve and save humanity we have to give up a measure of our own."_

So Kuro sat there and smiled at Kohana. It hurt him to let her do this but he had to let it happen. All he could do was catch her when she fell.

***

Kohana was too tired that day to visit Gaara and she was busy the next day as well, the hospital taking full advantage of the fact that they had two foreigners who could do chakra healing and were willing to lend their services for free whilst they were here in Suna. Kohana spent most of her day going from patient to patient with Soji and Azami. Azami quizzed her on every patient regarding what their illness was and how it could be most effectively treated. Some patients could be diagnosed without taking a scan with her chakra but some others were trickier. And some patients could be treated without the use of chakra, whilst others would need it.

She didn't always get it right.

"Remember Kohana, you can't just throw around your energy at every patient you meet. Otherwise when you find that you really need it you will be drained." Azamis' hands had flailed around as she made her point. "You have to learn to figure out which ones can do without and which ones can't."

Kuro had pretty much had a repeat of the previous day, except there was more wanting to challenge Grey and himself.

At the end they were both too tired to do much more then eat dinner and go straight to bed.

The next day Kohana was back at the hospital with Azami but this time Grey accompanied them, giving Kuro the day off. He bolted as soon as he finished breakfast in case Grey changed his mind. Kohana envied him but let him go. She knew how tiring all the spars had been and knew that he needed some time off. She picked through her own breakfast, this was going to be another long day and she still hadn't seen Gaara since that morning he told her what she had done when she was smashed. Perhaps if she wasn't so tired this evening she'll go visit him. She speared a piece of fruit on her plate with the fork and popped into her mouth, even if she was too tired she'll just get Kuro to carry her, since he did have the day off today he would still be fresh. With that thought to cheer her she finished off her breakfast with a grin.


	8. Chapter 8

AH! Finally chapter Eight is here! I am so so so sorry that it has taken me so long to get this chapter done. I had a family member go into hospital for major surgery and then I hit a MASSIVE writer's block that I literally had to force my way past. But I finally got it done. So rest assure I haven't abandoned the story and fair warning that I am not sure how long it will take me to get chapter nine done, what I can say that it won't be as long as a wait. Thanks for reading and enjoy ^.^

Chapter Eight

Kuro made a beeline straight for Gaaras' house hoping to catch either Gaara or Kankuro. He felt kind of bad for abandoning Kohana to the tender mercies of their teacher but at the same time he was heartily glad to get a day off from the fighting. Arriving at the house he gave a knock on the door. A few moments later Kankuro opened it. He blinked a few times.

"Morning." He said.

"Good morning!" Kuro said cheerily, "I was wondering if I could hide out here for a few hours?"

Kankuro scratched the back of his head, "Why on earth do you want to hide here?"

"Because I have the day off and the last thing I want is to be chased down and challenged all day." Kuro replied with a moan.

Kankuro gave a laugh, "Oh yeah, I've been hearing about that. Must've been fun."

Kuro pulled a face of disgust, "Not in the least."

"Come on in then. I have the day off as well so you're welcome to share it with me."

"Thanks!"

As Kankuro stepped away from the door Kuro walked in and went to the lounge room where he flopped onto the couch and spread out along its length. Kankuro emerged a few minutes later, bowl in one hand and a spoon in the other. He sat down in the armchair and started to eat.

"I do have few errands to run today so you can either come with me or just stay here." Kankuro said between mouthfuls of cereal.

"I'll follow you, if that's alright?"

Kankuro nodded and continued to eat.

Later as Kankuro meandered his way around Suna Kuro followed on his heels and savoured the open skies. How long had it been since he did some flying? A forlorn look came over his face; he had been in human form for over a week straight.

"What's wrong with you?"

Kuro drew his gaze from the wide blue expanse of the sky and focused on Kankuro.

"Nothing really, I just missing flying. This is the longest I have ever been in human form."

"Really?"

Kuro smiled, "You're surprised?"

"Well, yeah, a little." Kankuro replied with a shrug, "I thought this was how you usually spent your time."

Kuro laughed, "No. Back home I actually spend most of my time in my lesser crow form. I change to my greater form when I have the room or if I'm bored and want to go flying aimlessly around."

"Wow, that must be kinda of cool. How big are you?"

"Big enough to carry Kohana."

Kankuro gave an impressed nod, "That's big."

Kuro grinned, "Just a bit. Actually I've got an idea, where's the highest point in this town?"

"Hmmm," Kankuro thought for a moment before grinning, "I know a good spot!"

Ten minutes later they were perched atop the roof of the Kazekage's tower. Up this high they were exposed to the hot desert winds that blew in off the sands. Kuro closed his eye and spread his arms, a smile on his face as he let the breeze blow over him, plucking at his clothes and ruffling his hair. Kankuro just let his gaze roam over his home village.

"So." Kankuro said after a few moments, "What did Kohana do to Gaara the other night to make him blush that much?"

Kuro laughed loudly, "She kissed him."

Kankuro's eyebrows shot up.

"Then she offered him sex."

Kankuro gave a choking snort before bursting into a fit of laughter. Clutching his sides he wiped the tears from the corners of his eyes as he struggled to get himself under control.

"No...*gasp*... no wonder he looked like that."

Kuro sat down on the roof chuckling quietly, "You should have seen his face when he told her. I'm not sure what she said to _him_ but he bolted out of the dining room like his feet were on fire."

"Oh this is priceless." Kankuro shook his head, "Wonder what's going to happen now?"

A strange look came over Kuros face as he stared off into the distance.

"She wants to kiss him again."

Kankuro took a long hard look at Kuro.

"You love her, don't you?" he asked the crow suddenly.

Kuro turned to face him, a sad smile on his face.

"Yes I do."

"Then why are you letting her do it?"

Kuro leaned backed so that he was lying on his back and looking up at the blue sky.

"Because in the end I will be the only one left. I'll have her then; I just have to be patient."

Kankuro stuffed his hands into his pockets and looked down at him, "What do you mean?"

"Hmmm, let me put it this way. Sensei will be turning 724 this year."

Kankuro frowned, slightly confused for a moment, before it all clicked together. His eyes widened.

"How long is _she_ going to live for?" he asked quietly.

Kuro closed his eyes, "Assuming she doesn't do anything stupid to get herself killed, about 15 to 16 centuries."

Kankuro forgot to breathe for a moment.

"As I said, I will get her in the end, because I will be the only one left."

"Does... does Kohana know that she will live that long?"

"Of course she does, but I don't think she fully understands the full implication of that long life span." Kuro opened his eyes again, "It's both a blessing and a curse. She gets a long and healthy life but she will outlive all the people that she knows and holds dear."

Silence fell as Kankuro was rendered speechless, what _could_ he say? What could anybody say to something like this?

"What about Gaara?" Kankuros' voice was quiet, "I think he loves her."

Kuro sighed, one full of regret, "And I think she loves him but it won't work. Even if she could find a way to live with him, each year he will grow older and she will stay young. It will break his heart to see her forever young and it will break her heart to watch him die."

"There's got to be something that we can do."

Kuro sat up and fixed his dark-eyed gaze on Kankuro, "Even if I was allowed to, Kohana wouldn't listen. She wouldn't understand."

"Well I have to tell Gaara." Kankuro's voice held a tone of challenge.

"Please do." Kankuro was taken aback with surprise at the crows' reply, "Gaara is probably the only one who can make her see at this point."

Kankuro sat down heavily on the roof and rubbed his face, "This is going to suck. Gaara has been hurt so much in his life already, the last thing I want to do is add to it."

Kuro gave a shrug, "Can't be helped, he is going to be hurt either way." He drew up his knees and folded his arms over the top of them before resting his chin on his arms.

Kankuro just stared out over the village, unseeing, his attention focused inwards, "I will tell him tonight." he murmured sadly.

***

Kohana flopped down on the bed with a grunt and just laid there staring blankly at the wall. Today she had been assigned to paediatrics.

It was a nightmare.

Kids just couldn't sit still. During an examination they would wiggle and squirm making a fairly simple and straightforward procedure into a mission. The children that were receiving inoculations would, upon spotting the needle, kick, punch, cry and scream at the top of their lungs. The worst kids were the ones doing ninja training, because they knew _where_ to aim their kicks and punches. By the end of the day Kohana had become fairly adept at dodging blows, she had also found the best way to pin a kid down in one spot. It still didn't change the fact that she would probably have a bruise or two from some fairly well placed blows.

The door opened to admit Kuro. He took one look at her before a smug grin spread itself over his face. She just continued to stare blankly straight ahead.

"Rough day?" he asked settling on the bed next to her.

"I hate children." she mumbled out, "They are the spawn of evil."

Kuro patted her back trying not to laugh.

"That's not true, you like your nieces and nephews."

Kohana just muttered something incomprehensible a dark look crossing her face.

"Well if it will make you feel better, Sensei has given us both tomorrow off."

Kohana perked up a bit at that bit of news, "Good. I can go visit Gaara."

Kuro gave a sigh as he face fell, "We are getting the day off so that we can pack. We're going home the day after tomorrow."

Kohana sat up with a jerk, "What!"

He gave her an even look, "Well we couldn't stay here forever, and we do have responsibilities at home."

"I know, I know," Kohana said rubbing her eyes, "It's just..."

"I know." Kuro gave a wry smile, "But it's been almost a month, most of that time spent here in Suna."

"I know." Kohana moaned, "But... I... I don't want to go home yet."

"Ah sweetie," Kuro wrapped his arms around her in a hug, "it's because of Gaara isn't it?'

Mutely, she nodded. She rested her forehead on her partners shoulder.

"I think this is the first time in my life that I wished I didn't become a Healer" she whispered.

Kuro stroked some loose strands of hair back, "But if you hadn't become a Healer you never would have met Gaara and would be sitting at home desperately wishing you were."

She gave a small bitter laugh, "Ah, irony. I like it about as much as I like being teased." she pulled a face as Kuro laughed.

Kohana pulled out of his arms. "I suppose I could always just do regular visits."

"And I suppose we could talk about this later," Kuro said rubbing his stomach, "I'm hungry."

Kohana rolled her eyes, "Come along then," she said grabbing his wrist and dragging him out, "Let's get you fed. Can't have you perishing of hunger."

He laughed again and allowed himself to be led.

***

As the rays of dawn crept in through the windows Gaara stood up and stretched out his arms. He had been unable to sleep last night so he had instead come to his office to work. He walked over to the window to watch as the village started to stir to life. He had intended to work until he was too tired to think but it would appear that he had worked right through the night.

Sitting back down in his chair he gave a slight frown as the thoughts that he had been working to keep at bay started to intrude upon him again. Resting his elbows on the desk he placed his forehead into his palms and closed his eyes. He had talked with Kankuro last night and he had been given a shock to his system, an epiphany of epic proportions.

Only to have it crushed.

Abruptly Gaara stood up and stalked out of his office and quickly made his way back home. Quietly he eased himself inside had headed to his bedroom where he closed the door behind himself. Shedding his shoes he fell onto the bed and closed his eyes again in an effort to banish reality. It didn't work, instead his mind insisted on replaying the conversation that he had with his brother.

_"Gaara I have to ask you something." Kankuro was lounging on the couch in the lounge room, book in hand, as Gaara arrived home from work. Stopping, Gaara turned and walked back to the entrance to the lounge room and folded his arms, a questioning look on his face. Kankuro sat up, resting the book on the coffee table. He looked straight at his brother._

_"Do you love Kohana?"_

_A look of shock and surprise came over Gaara's face as he gaped at Kankuro speechless. Surely this must be some kind of a joke?! Gaara looked at his older brother and knew that he was not joking or teasing. He was asking seriously. Gaara sputtered out a few sounds, still in a state of semi-shock. Kankuro suppressed a grin and got up to guide his brother to the couch where he sat Gaara down on the couch and sat next to him._

_"Ok you can stop the fish impersonation." Kankuro said as he leaned back._

_Gaara shut his mouth with a snap and frowned at Kankuro. Kankuro tilted his head to the side as he studied Gaara._

_"Ah, thought so." he said with a sigh, "You do love her."_

_More garbled sounds came from Gaara but he was cut off from a wave of his brothers' hand._

_"You worry about her and whatever stupid thing she might decide to do. She confuses you and sometimes infuriates you with her stubbornness. It hurt when she didn't talk to you, and when she did it felt like the whole world was set right again. You smile whenever you think about her. You can sit there for hours on end and listen to her talk just for the sake of hearing her voice."_

_Gaara just gave Kankuro a strange look. How did he do that!? How could he know? It suddenly hit him light a bolt of lighting, squeezing his heart and leaving him breathless._

_He did love her._

_"Gaara." Gaara suddenly realised that his brother was saying his name. He looked up at him, a look of semi-shock still on his face._

_"Gaara, you can't have her."_

_A frown crossed Gaara's face as he slowly shook his head in denial. Kankuro grabbed him by the shoulders._

_"Look, I know you love her but you two can never be together. And it's not just because the responsibilities that you both have. Tell me, do you know of the effects of the bonding that Kuro and Kohana share?"_

_"Yes." Gaara managed to get out, "Kohana told me that she gets a larger chakra reserve, better health and a long life."_

_Kankuro let his hands drop, "Do you know how long she is going to live?"_

_Slowly, Gaara shook his head._

_"She is going to live for centuries. You know her Sensei? Well she is over seven hundred years old, and yet she looks about mid-twenties at most. If you two try to have a relationship it..." he waved his hands trying to find the right way to describe it, "It just wouldn't work. You will get older with each year, but she will stay young and fresh."_

_The words hit Gaara almost like a physical blow as he fully comprehended the knowledge, and the consequences, those words bought him. Without a word he suddenly stood up and walked out of the house._

That was when he had gone to the office and worked and worked. But when the dawn came and he ran out of work to do his mind had been forced back.

He squeezed his eyes tight trying to banish his thoughts.

***

A knock on the door jerked Gaara from the light doze he had managed to slip into. He sat up and rubbed his eyes as Kankuro opened the door and poked his head in.

"Kohana is here." He said simply before walking off leaving the door open. Gaara froze, he wasn't ready for this! Not yet! He was still frozen with panic and indecision when the door was pushed all the way open and Kohana walked in.

Kohana stood in the door way for a moment, gathering up her trembling courage. When she had woken up she had resolved that she would simply do it. She would kiss him straight away and deal with the consequences afterwards. She had left the inn full of steady determination, but as she had gotten closer to the house her resolve started to waver and she almost turned back several times. Now here she was, in the doorway to his bedroom, her heart was pounding, her palms were sweating and her resolve was nothing more than a puddle on the floor. Looking at Gaara she saw that he was just sitting on his bed, looking back at her a little wide eyed. Well, she thought, it was now or never. She stepped in.

Gaara's heart started to pound wildly as Kohana walked in and settled herself on the bed next to him. He forced himself to take deep even breaths. Looking at the profile of her face as she stared down at her hands resting in her lap, he thought it was one of the most beautiful things he had ever seen, this was going to be one of the hardest things he would ever have to do. He opened his mouth...

"Oh, bugger it." Kohana suddenly said out loud.

She turned and before Gaara could react she had closed the distance between them and planted her lips on his. Gaara was surprised and responded without really thinking, his eyes slid shut and one hand reached up to cup her cheek.

Kohana's heart thudded out of control sending the blood rushing past her ears so loudly that she was deaf to any other noises. What made it even better was that she would actually remember this one. Her hands reached up to wind around his neck and hold him closer. However Kohana was a little surprised when he instead detangled her arms and pulled away.

"Wait..." he murmured, "we can't."

She looked at him, confused, to see his face full of pain, regret and hurt.

As her arms had twined around him Gaara was bought sharply back to the reality of their situation. Reluctantly he pulled away. It hurt him to see the confusion in Kohana's eyes. His gaze dropped to his hands as they rested in his lap, not looking at her might make it easier, but that wouldn't be the case. She cupped his cheek and bought his face back up.

"What do you mean?" she asked gently.

Gaara swallowed down the knot that had formed in his throat.

"We won't work. Our lives are too different." he said quietly.

"What? The distance thing? It's ok I can visit regularly. Surely you're allowed to leave this village sometimes, which means that you could also come and visit me. I could send Jet up to get you and..." her nervous flow of words was stopped by Gaara resting his finger on her lips.

"It's not that." he let his hand drop, "you will live for centuries and centuries. I will be lucky to make it to six decades. Our lives won't run parallel; we won't be able to share all the simple pleasures in life. I will be long dead and dust in the ground and you will still look just like this." he cupped her cheek and ran the ball of his thumb over smooth skin, "so beautiful."

She grasped his hand, "It's ok, we can make it work." she said, her voice cracking from the tears and pain she was suppressing.

"Can you really? What are you going to do when I am a doddering old man and you are still full of vitality? That's even if I reach such an age, being a shinobi every new day I wake up is lucky. The last thing I want is for you to go through either of that."

Kohana squeezed her eyes shut and grasped is hand tightly to the side of her face as tears escaped the confines of her lids. He was right, she knew that, but it didn't make the hurt any less painful. Finally she managed to choke out some words.

"I'll be leaving tomorrow."

"I know."

Leaning forward she kissed him. So much pain and regret for the life that could never be lived was behind the kiss. She pulled away resting her forehead against his, her eyes still closed.

"I love you." she whispered.

"I love you too." Gaara replied, knowing that it was true.

Lifting her head Kohana opened her eyes, brushing her fingers over the symbol on his forehead.

"I know."

With that she stood up and all but ran out the door. When she left Gaara laid down on his bed and curled himself into a ball.

***

Kohana ran into the inn and made a beeline straight for her room, passing Azami on the stairwell. Reaching her room she threw herself on the bed and curled around the pillow. A few moments later a soft knock was heard on the door and her Sensei's voice was heard.

"Kohana?"

The doorknob turned and the door opened as Azami let herself into the room. Closing the door behind her she walked over and sat on the side of the bed.

"Kohana, what's wrong?" she asked resting her hand on her students shoulder.

Kohana sat up and looked over at her Sensei, hot tears running down her cheeks, her face twisted with hurt.

"What will he become?" she asked.

With a sad and empathetic look Azami rested her hand on her students cheek as she realised what she was talking about, "A fond memory." she whispered.

Shudders racked Kohana's body as she cried her heart out. Azami just wrapped her arms around her student and held her as she cried.


	9. Chapter 9

Never fear, this story didn't die. I've just been caught up with other things and the story had to sit on the backburner for a bit. I'm sorry for how long it took me to get this chapter up seeing as I did say that it wouldn't be that long. So enjoy the last chapter and as always nice reviews and constructive criticism are loved and flaming is used to keep my toes warm as I continue to write. Cheers.

Chapter Nine

Night had fallen, everyone else had gone to bed and the city was at rest. Kohana, however, was still wide awake and staring at the blank wall next to her bed. Her tears had dried up for now and a deep misery had settled into her being. After her Sensei had left she had not spoken to anyone, and had only eaten a few bites of her food at dinner. She knew that Kuro was worried but she couldn't bring herself to reassure him. Kohana stared, without seeing, at the white wall. All of her thoughts turned inwards.

She didn't want to leave it like this, her last memory being of tears and anguish. Suddenly she sat up as a thought occurred to her; perhaps it didn't have to end like this. Without stopping to think about what she was doing Kohana threw back the covers of her bed and got up. Stepping lightly she let herself out of the room, quietly closing the door behind her and walked down the stairs. Outside the moon was bright, throwing off enough light for her to see. Silently she ghosted through the streets, her plain white nightgown seeming to glow softly as she moved as though in a daze.

Finally she reached her destination. Her hand reached up and turned the door knob.

***

With a sudden jerk Gaara shot awake and sat up quickly with a kunai in his hand pointed at the intruder in his bedroom. He relaxed when the moonlight filtering through the window glinted off long waves of blue-black hair.

"Kohana? What are you doing here? I could've..." he was cut off as she moved forward and rested a finger on his lips.

"Sssh please." Gaara could feel her finger trembling slightly. She continued, "I just want one night. One night of memories that I can carry with me for the rest of my life. Please give me this."

Gaara reached up his hand to grasp hers and rested it against his cheek closing his eyes as he began to shiver himself. Oh, how much he wanted this. It would be memories that not only she would carry but he would as well. But this would be the one and only time. Was it worth it? This one night where they could forget about tomorrow. He knew that with the dawn of the new day the night would be gone, taking her with it.

Was it worth it?

"Yes." He said quietly.

Without hesitation she leaned in, her hair falling like a curtain around her face, capturing his lips with her own in a kiss that was soft and sweet. As he kissed her back the kunai fell to the floor with a clutter as his hands ran around her torso and he drew her slowly down to the bed.

It was bittersweet.

Afterwards she curled against his side, her arm resting over his bare chest as he gently stroked her hair. It wasn't long before they both fell asleep wrapped in each others arms.

***

Kohana woke, that was when she felt the pulse in her chakra. Closing her eyes again she sent a pulse back to Kuro to let him know that she was awake even though it was still dark out. Opening her eyes again a feeling of deep sadness welled up from the depth of her being before washing over her. Softly she moved her hand and drew upon her chakra, sending it to Gaara to keep him asleep as she gently extracted herself from his arms. Sitting on the edge of the bed she reached for her night gown. Lying on the ground was the kunai that was dropped earlier. She picked it up and looked down at it resting in her hands. Wrapping her hands around the hilt she stuck the tip into the bottom of the night gown and cut off a strip. Tying the strip around a lock of her hair she bought the kunai up to cut off the lock. Placing the weapon on the bedside table she gently laid the lock of hair on the pillow she had just vacated.

Kohana looked down at Gaara's peaceful sleeping face, drinking in every detail and storing it away. Finally she leaned down and, brushing the hair away, gave him a soft kiss on the forehead. Quickly she stood up and dressed before slipping out of the room, her vision turning blurry as she fled back to the inn.

***

Kuro looked up from the last of the packing he was doing as Kohana came in the door and without saying a word grabbed up the outfit that he had left on the bed for her and headed for the bathroom. Five minutes later she emerged fully dressed with her night clothes bundled in her hands. She walked over to the bags and stuffed them into the top of hers. Picking up her bags she turned to Kuro.

"Where's Sensei?" she asked.

"She's downstairs settling our account." Kuro replied. After a few moments he spoke again, "Kohana, I'm here if you need me."

She nodded as her vision blurred again, "I know. Thank you."

Kuro gently took her by the shoulders and guided her to the bed where he made her sit down. Quickly and deftly he put her hair into a long plait. After he tied off the end Kuro wrapped his arms around her and gave her a hug.

"Come on, we better get going."

Kohana nodded numbly and stood up to grab her bags. They walked down the stairs where they met up with Azami and Grey. Quietly they slipped out into the darkness, leaving the bleary eyed innkeeper with a generous tip for being up before dawn. Down the streets they walked until they reached the gateway. Kohana paused and took a look back and knew that she would never return to this village again. She turned her back to the sandstone buildings walked away towards where the others waited for her.

They walked until they were out of sight of the village walls. They stopped and Grey stripped off his shirt and pants, handing the clothing to Azami. With a burst of silver chakra Grey changed to his natural demon wolf form. He was huge, towering above them at about three and a half to four metres at the shoulder. He was grey in colour with light silver markings on his face. He stretched himself out before shaking his entire body vigorously.

"This is much better." he said, his voice low with a hint of a growl to it, as he settled down in a crouch.

The others scrambled onto his back, settling themselves in and clutching handfuls of fur.

"Everyone on?" He asked.

"Yes." Azami replied, "Let's go, we have to get to the coast by dawn."

"Easily done." he said lurching to feet and taking off across the sands at a ground eating lope.

As Grey settled into rhythm Kuro looked at Kohana a little worried. She hadn't said a word since the inn, hadn't even eaten anything either. He heaved a sigh, the sound of it lost on the cool night time wind as it rushed past. He wished that she would talk to him or something, holding in the pain wasn't healthy, especially the kind of pain that she was going through. He bowed his head and momentarily closed his eyes, she was falling and he was a little bit afraid that there might not be enough of her to catch.

***

Gaara jerked awake and sat up quickly all at once. Outside the sky was just beginning to lighten as the sun prepared to slip over the horizon. Looking at the empty side of his bed a vice gripped his heart in a painful hold as he absently ran his hand over the spot she was laying in not a few hours ago when they had both drifted off to sleep. It was almost as if she had never been there, nothing more then a dream. A slight wave of panic rushed through him, was last night nothing more then simply a dream?! It was then that he noticed the lock of hair tied in a ragged ribbon sitting quietly on the pillow next to his. With his hand trembling he gingerly picked it up and held it in his cupped hands as his whole body shook. After what seemed an eternity Gaara closed his hand over the lock of hair and laid back down on his side, pulling the other pillow close to his chest and burying his face in it. He could still smell her scent on it, he clutched the pillow closer and breathed deep trying to burn her scent into his brain forever whilst at the same time trying to block out the fact that she was gone and was never coming back. Eventually Gaara managed to fall back into the oblivion of sleep still clutching the lock of hair in one hand and holding the pillow close with the other, not caring that it was damp from the tears that had been running down his face since he first woke up.

***

They reached the shore just as the first of the stars started to fade away. Looking over at the east Azami could see the sky starting to lighten. Good, she thought, it was just before dawn and with any luck they could reach the first stopping island before sunset. Grey came to a stop and crouched down so that his passengers could slide off. Once they were off a swirl of silver chakra wrapped around him as he switched to his human form. Azami handed him his clothes with the addition of a warm jacket, she was already wearing hers and he could see Kohana pulling her jacket on. At the same time Kuro was stripping off his own clothes. Once naked, blue-black chakra flowed around his form, growing until he reached his natural demonic size before dissipating leaving behind a massive crow. Kohana started digging out lengths of rope and leather straps from her larger bag as Azami started to tap her foot.

"Where is Jet?" she asked Kuro.

Kuro fluffed out all his feathers and shook himself out as he looked around at the sky.

"Here he comes." he said pointing his beak into the sky.

Sure enough a black dot came hurtling down out of the sky. Just as it would seem that he would go splat on the ground he pulled out of the dive and landed with a little bounce. No sooner had he touched the ground then he swirled with blue-black chakra like Kuro and grew to his natural size.

"I'm sorry I'm late," Jet said pushing his head through the loop of rope that Grey was holding up, "I misjudged how fast I could fly in my smaller form."

Kuro just rolled his eyes from his crouched position on the ground, Kohana scrambling over his back with a bit of the harness in her hands.

"That's because you think your _so_ much better at everything in any form then you actually are." Kuro said cheekily.

Jet just clacked his beak at his younger brother as Grey scrambled over his back. Soon both the demon crows where harnessed and they were almost ready to leave.

"Right, shake." Azami ordered.

Both crows started to shake themselves vigorously to get the harnesses to sit comfortably. Kuro only had to shake himself twice before he got it settled right. Jet shook a few more times before he was satisfied. He fluffed his feathers and spread his wings, catching the light of new day as it just slid over the horizon.

"Let's go." Jet said with a gleam in his eye.

Azami rolled her eyes, "That would be easier to do, vain bird, if you could let us get on."

Jet's feathers slicked themselves down as he mumbled an apology and crouched down to allow Azami and Grey to climb up. Kohana was already seated on Kuro and securely tying down their packs to the harness before tying herself in. In no time everyone and everything was secure.

"Now we can go." Kuro said.

"Race you to the first stopping point!" Jet said quickly, crouching and taking a leap, flapping his wings furiously to gain altitude. Kuro followed right on his tail, shaking his head as he heard Azami giving Jet a piece of her mind regarding the abrupt take off. Jet, as usual, ignored her lecture.

Once they were in the air and the ocean was sliding away far beneath them Jet tilted his wings slightly to give himself some distance from Kuro.

"What is wrong with Kohana?" Jet asked Azami, moving his head slightly so that she could hear him.

Azami gave a sigh and closed her eyes. "She fell in love." she said simply.

There was a long silence in which Azami could feel Jet becoming tense beneath her.

"Will she be alright?" he finally asked.

Azami could hear the unspoken concern behind the question, could feel the tension as the crow demon waited for the answer. Her hand crept over until she could grasp Grey's hand; he gave her hand a reassuring squeeze as she opened her eyes and looked over at Kuro and Kohana. With one sentence she put Jet's fears to rest.

"She will be."


	10. Epilogue

Ok, so the end of Ch 9 was very depressing, but I never intended for this story to have one of those perfectly happily ever after endings. However, I do love Gaara so I couldn't leave him with nothing, thus the Epilogue. In case anyone is interested, this entire story was inspired by the song 'Save Tonight' by Eagle Eye Cherry.

NOTE: I haven't actually gotten the Epilogue spelled-checked yet, so there will most likely be spelling errors 'cause my spelling gets proportionatly worse as the word gets longer. My computer only has WordPad which is a step up from Notepad and a large step down from Word, so I have to get to another computer that does have Word to do my spell checking. Once I do get it done I will update this.

Epilogue

Gaara sat, staring at his drink as he idly swirled it around in the glass. Across from him sat his brother Kankuro, whom had dragged Gaara here after work in an effort to get him out of the funk in was in. Kankuro shot his younger brother a worried look, was he ever gonna stop mooning over that girl? It had been well over a year since she had left and the Kazekage was showing no sign of moving on. With a sigh Kankuro delegated this little attempt at getting Gaara distracted a complete failure.

"Let's go home." He suggested to Gaara.

Gaara's head jerked up, as if he had forgotten his older brother was there.

"Sure." he said getting up, leaving his drink on the table and walking out.

Kankuro settled the tab and walked outside to where Gaara waited. They walked home in the gathering dusk without any conversation, each wrapped in thier own heads. Kankuro didn't know what to do anymore, his brother worried him. All he did was throw himself into work until he was too tired to think straight then went to sleep. His meals were what ever was put in front of him. Not even the birth of thier first nephew worked. Kankuro just wanted to grab his brother and shake him silly. He considered that option for a moment, it might not work on Gaara, but it would sure as hell make him feel better.

As they reached the house both the ninja's were put on alert at the sight of the front door slightly ajar. Who on earth would be stupid enough to break into the Kazekage's house? Kankuro went in first, quietly pushing the front door open. Following behind him Gaara pulled out a kunai. Kankuro slipped into the lounge room whilst Gaara headed for the kitchen. He had just entered and confirm with a sweeping glance that no one was there when he heard Kankuro call out.

"Gaara. You better come in here."

Quickly Gaara rushed out of the kitchen and into the lounge room. As he entered he saw Kankuro standing next to the coffee table and looking down in shock at what was resting on top of it.

It was a basket.

Slowly he approached it. When he was right next to it he looked down. In the basket, wrapped securely against the elements, was a sleeping baby. Gaara's whole body went ridgid as he took in the child's black hair that highlighted red in the light and light honey skin. He suddenly found it hard to breathe, his breath becoming light and shallow as he tried to gulp in enough oxygen. Kankuro plucked out the letter that was tucked into the side and opened it. Briefly he scanned the contents before handing it to Gaara. With shaking hands he took it. There was a date, some six months ago, and a few lines.

_His name is Ryuu and that's his birthday_

_I'll love you both for the rest of my long life._

Gaara sunk slowly down to sit on the couch, his legs no longer able to support him. Kankuro sat down next to him and took the short letter from his nerveless fingers. Deliberatly and slowly he set the piece of paper on the table then rested his hands on his lap.

"Your a father." Kankuro said quietly to his brother.

The words struck Gaara almost like a physical blow. He was a father! A parent! This was his child! A small sound from the basket and a waving fist drew his attention sharply back to the basket. He leaned over to see a pair of bright blue eyes staring back at him. Both the fists waved in the air this time, freed from the blanket by his squirming. Gaara reached his hand in to touch the baby, not quite entirely convinced that he was there. Ryuu grabbed at his finger in a tight grasp and stuffed it into his mouth. Gaara's eyes widened as he gummed on his finger covering it in drool.

"He's very quiet."

Both Gaara and Kankuro went on the defensive at the sound of the strange voice, only to find themselves looking at someone familiar.

"Kuro?" Kankuro asked.

It was Kuro, but he looked different then they had ever seen him. He was in human form, but not completely. His feet ended in crows feet and he was covered head to ankle in blue-black feathers, only his face was visible. The brothers relaxed and Gaara actually perked up a bit.

"You bought him here, is..." he trailed off, not quite able to say her name.

Kuro shook his head, "No, she is in Konoha."

Gaara's heart plummeted. Kuro walked over to him and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"She couldn't," he said gently, "she had to leave you once and that tore her heart. If she had come back, she wouldn't have been able to leave a second time."

Gaara stared at the little child in the basket and asked him the question that had haunted most of his nights.

"Why did she have to leave in the first place?"

Kuro tilted his head as he scrutinised him, then leaned in close.

"Because if she had stayed she would have had to revoke being a healer, so that she could live out a normal human lifespan. Kohana would have to have severed her link with me. She couldn't do that to me."

With a slight frown he looked up at Kuro, "Why, what would have happened to you?" his tone was almost accusing.

Then Kuro whispered seven words that chilled Gaara to his very core.

"Where do you think Shukaku came from?"

Gaara closed his eyes as Kuro leaned back away from him and dropped his hand to his side. Opening his eyes Gaara sat back down on the couch and stuck his hand back in the basket to let Ryuu grab his finger again.

"Why bring him here then?" Gaara asked.

"Because your the only family he has left now."

He glanced sidewards up at Kuro, "I thought Kohana had her parents and siblings?"

Kuro gave a slight shrug, "She cut her ties to them when she was thirteen. Besides, as his father you get precedent over grandparents, aunts and uncles." Kuro gave a small smirk, "Unless, of course, you don't want him?"

"No!" Gaara said quickly, "I want him. I just... wondered."

Kuro broke out with a wider smile and let the baby grab one of his feathered fingers in his other fist, "Kohana knows that you will love him, and that through him you can keep a little piece of her."

"Thank you."

Kuro distangled his finger from the childs, straighted up and turned to leave.

"Wait." Gaara said.

Kuro turned, "I have to go now."

"Will we ever see you again?"

Slowly the crow demon shook his head, "Not you, your desedants maybe one day, but not you."

"Oh." Gaara paused for a moment. "Can... can you tell Kohana that..." he trailed off as the words lodged themselves in his throat.

Kuro nodded, "I'll tell her." Then he dissapeared in a swirl of blue-black chakra, leaving a small crow that quickly winged it's way out the open front door. Kankuro blew out his breath, this had turned into a very unexpected evening. Gently he poked his brother.

"Why don't you pick him up?"

Gaara looked startled for a moment, then gingerly he reached into the basket to pick up his child. As he cradled his son in his arms a smile broke out on his face. He was a daddy, he resolved then and there to make sure his son had all the love that he never had gotten as a child. Suddenly Kankuro pulled a face.

"Aw, the council's gonna want to test the paternity."

Gaara shrug, "Let them, it doesn't matter what they think." He then noticed something in the basket, picking it up he saw it was a photo. It was Kohana, lying on a picnic blanket asleep, her hair fanned out around her head and lying next to her was Ryuu, also asleep. Kankuro leaned over to have a look at the picture and smiled elbowing Gaara gently in the ribs.

"You lucky dog, to have a woman like that love you."

Gaara turned beet red and tucked the picture into his pocket. Yes, he thought as he looked at his son again, who was falling asleep in arms, very lucky, and very loved.

Well, that ends the story Desert Rose. Thanks for all those who read it and big thanks to all those who reviewed afterwards as they gave me the warm fuzzy feeling that made it worthwhile writing. I do actually read every review left by the readers of my stories, so until the next story.

Cheers ^.^

NOTES OF INTREST: **1.** I named the kid Ryuu because it means dragon, so Subaku no Ryuu would translate roughly to Dragon of the Desert. I thought it was cool. **2. **Kohana's last name roughly translates to Night and her first name is something like 'little flower' or 'flower child' so an artistic translation of her name could be 'Little Night Flower' or 'Night Flower Child'.


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